THUNDER BAY — City officials say they will be bringing some good news to Thunder Bay city council on Monday about how the municipality is faring in the Housing Accelerator Fund Program.
Thunder Bay has a program goal of constructing 1,691 new permitted homes by February 2027.
Summer Stevenson, the city’s housing accelerator project manager, said the city saw the permitting of 345 net new units under the program, which is 102 per cent of its target for the period of time between March 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025. In total, the report said, 355 units were approved, but 10 other structures were demolished during that period.
“The message to city council is that we are making great progress with implementing the council-approved action plan, and that Thunder Bay is emerging as a top performing city,” Stevenson said.
“The criteria that that we've been told (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) uses to measure whether a city is performing well is whether they're meeting those annual targets and whether they're on track with their action plan.”
The city’s goal for the first-year period was 339 permitted units, Stevenson said. For years two and three of the program, she added, the goal jumps to 676 new units each year.
“If we stay on track with those annual targets, we can expect to meet that that overarching one by 2027,” Stevenson said.
The city has been allocated up to $20.7 million in funds to disperse to approved projects in order to spur housing development in Thunder Bay. The accelerator fund program provides money in the form of grants to homeowners and developers.
The first round for application submissions has closed, but Stevenson said another window is scheduled to open on March 20.
“So that's the big thing we want everyone to know about, this intake and to submit their projects to help us meet our second-year target,” she said.
During that first period, the report to council said the city approved 59 grant applications, totalling over $8.1 million.
The upcoming new grant period will include funding for multi-unit residential construction projects, “additional dwelling” builds, like basement apartments and backyard homes, as well as a specific funding stream for housing in the downtown cores, Stevenson said.
It closes April 17.
“We're hoping to continue this great momentum, so we want to start to share what to expect,” Stevenson said.
-With files from Sheri Leviski-Kotyk
