THUNDER BAY - Thunder Bay city council has approved a plan to build more affordable rental housing units in the city.
A report on the affordable rental housing funding program was presented to city council on Monday.
The report details a plan to distribute the $20.7 million of the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to fast track the building of 600 new affordable housing units in the next three years.
City council also approved $1.5 million be allocated to the affordable rental housing funding program from the housing accelerator fund budget in 2024.
The $1.5 million will support the building of up to 38 new units in 2024 at $40,000 per unit, or a combination of affordable units and market units at $20,000 each.
During discussion on the plan, Coun. Rajni Agarwal proposed an amendment to the program to reduce the per unit cost from $40,000 to $20,000 and add $7,500 extra per unit if green energy is used and $5,000 if the unit is on an existing transit route.
“What I am proposing is so we can create more housing from $1.5 million,” Agarwal said. “Thirty-eight units will not make a big dent in our affordable housing crisis. We need 50 or maybe even 100 units.”
The amendment received little support from around the council table, with Coun. Andrew Foulds saying council should not decrease incentives.
The “$40,000 is there to incentivize affordable housing,” he said. “We have to get behind this. We have a housing crisis. We have an affordability crisis. We can do something now. We can do something tonight to move on this and we are arguing about lowering the incentive. I cannot support this.”
Coun. Brian Hamilton added that the numbers in the plan are not arbitrary and commended city administration on the collaborative process it took to reach the number in the plan.
“The original plan ranged from $20,000 to $30,000. When we looked at cost of construction and feedback from developers and not-for-profit, there were barriers to development,” said Summer Stevenson, project manager of housing accelerator fund.
“There are plans for $20,000 per unit. We wanted to incentivize. We’ve heard $40,000 was not enough, but we found it to be a fair compromise for this program.”
Ultimately, Agarwal’s amendment was defeated.
Other concerns were raised regarding the proposed program. City administration was asked how it will be ensured that private suites on private property are being used as rental properties.
“We are following the requirements of the housing accelerator program. Many of these initiatives will support various types of rental housing,” said Joel DePeuter, director of development services.
“CHMC is not requiring evidence by way of a lease. Where a building permit is issued for a unit, that will result in an assessment of the property by MPAC. There will be an impact. The property will be recorded in the assessment system as having an additional unit.”
Foulds also raised the housing project on Junot Avenue to address housing needs in the city and whether or not new projects will see similar delays.
“Are you confident that this program will make sure those housing needs, that this city desperately needs, will not take as long as those projects?” Foulds asked.
“There are a few ways council’s plan addresses those issues. There is work being done to ensure fewer projects require rezoning, so work can start sooner,” DePeuter said.
“I am aware the project on Huron Avenue and Junot did not proceed in a timely basis because of a lack of capital funding. This program will assist with those sorts of developments and to come online more quickly.”
Mayor Ken Boshcoff asked if administration is confident in meeting the provincial housing targets as set out in the plan.
“We are confident in our ability to implement the action plan and hopefully through the action plan we will see progress toward these targets,” Stevenson said.
