A new project studying the housing challenges facing young adults and Millennials in our cities will be the topic of a panel discussion at the University of Waterloo this week.
Professor Markus Moos, from the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo, leads the project called Generationed City and is available to the media to the discuss the important issues it will investigate.
“There are good economic reasons to ensure housing remains affordable. Spending lots on housing means less to spend on food, clothing, entertainment, travel—it impacts expenditures in other sectors of the economy," said Professor Moos.
Economists and banks point to a growing affordability crisis in our country that is having a profound effect on young people.
“Expensive housing also makes it more difficult to attract and retain workers—many young people do move to expensive cities but once they are looking at more permanent homes, or perhaps start having children, more affordable markets do win out," he said. "This phenomenon is contributing to longer commutes, and the associated congestion, air pollution, and expense of infrastructure provision into sprawling suburbs. We need to re-think and re-design our entire housing system.”
The Panelists:
Professor Markus Moos, Professor Pierre Filion, Professor Laura Johnson and Maxwell Hartt, all from the University of Waterloo; Professor Roger Keil from York University and Professor Alan Walks from the University of Toronto.
The panel discussion will take place on Thursday, January 29 at 1 p.m. at the School of Planning. Refreshments and informal discussions with the panelists will start at 12:30. For more information on the panel, please visit the event website.
Registration for the event is now closed. The discussion will be available live online.
