City making pitch for federal housing funds

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This article was published 20/06/2023 (869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon is trying to get in on a federal housing program that could provide more than $7 million in funding through 2027.

Part of the national housing strategy, the housing accelerator fund, launches applications in two streams this summer that will end up providing $4 billion in total.

Successful applications to the two streams — one for small, rural, northern and Indigenous municipalities and the other for larger population centres with more than 10,000 residents — can get funding to boost their community’s housing supply through the 2026-27 fiscal year.

Funding can also be used to support housing-related infrastructure and community-related infrastructure that affects housing.

Brandon’s director of planning and building, Ryan Nickel, said the city could receive $1.8 million in each of 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 if the city’s bid is successful. That would total $7.2 million in funding as long as the city meets the targets laid out by the program.

Even if the city doesn’t meet its targets — which will depend on some external factors like working with developers — Nickel said funding will still be received for the first two years.

He said the city was planning on having its application ready by late July, although he said the federal government had not yet set a firm deadline.

According to him, the program was announced earlier this year as an acknowledgment that there is a housing shortage in the country, but that the barriers to providing more housing can differ between communities.

There are a few main requirements for applicants under the large/urban stream to which Brandon will be applying.

They must have a minimum housing growth rate of 1.1 per cent, complete seven initiatives to improve housing supply in their communities, increase the growth rate of housing in their community by at least 10 per cent, complete a housing needs assessment and report their progress to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The program provides a base $20,000 per unit of funding for dwelling units built under it. If certain requirements are met, like if the units are built near rapid transit or if the buildings are four stories or less, up to $34,000 per unit in top-up funding can be received as well.

Brandon Transit does not meet the standards for rapid transit, Nickel confirmed.

If the units are designated as affordable housing, they can receive up to $19,000 per unit in funding on top of that.

In the last five years, the city states 61 per cent of its housing growth has come from multi-unit developments. The second-largest segment of growth was in single-detached homes at 19 per cent.

That was followed by rowhouses (14 per cent), duplexes (four per cent) and mobile homes (two per cent).

Nickel said those figures are fascinating to him as a planner as they represent a long-term shift from building more detached homes to smaller, cheaper multi-unit buildings.

According to Nickel, the city is projecting a 1.1 per cent annual growth rate, in line with the program’s requirements.

The way Nickel explained it, if the program will allow Brandon to build an additional 50 housing units in a year than it would without the funding it provides, it will provide funding for those additional units.

The growth expected from the funding, if approved, is expected to be seen almost entirely in multi-unit homes.

Because interest rates continue to climb, Nickel said the timing of the project isn’t ideal in that respect.

For a better chance at qualifying for the funding, Nickel said city administration has used a scorecard provided by the federal government to determine what policies they might need to change.

Those policy changes include establishing a new vision for low density zones, reducing parking requirements for new builds, intensifying transportation corridors, providing an incentive for downtown market housing, creating a water servicing plan for the city’s southern growth area, updating vacant land and building bylaws and updating previously existing affordable housing incentives.

Though Nickel said he did not need an answer on the proposed changes on Monday, he said they would be brought up again before the application is finalized.

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