North Perth council updated on affordable housing funding, study, and action plan

PentictonHerald.ca
Nov. 6, 2023

Canada’s Housing Minister Sean Fraser has been recently quoted that he is prioritizing “the most ambitious” applications to the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which will distribute $4 billion to housing projects across the country over a three-year term.

North Perth applied for the HAF funding in August.

“We were reviewing the news (from the Housing Minister) and Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has posted a list of ten best practices for an ambitious HAF application,” Jessica McLean told council on Oct. 23. “We were pleased to see that the majority of the items included in that list were included in the North Perth submission or have already been implemented in North Perth.”

Although she did not provide specifics, McLean added that she is planning to send a letter reiterating North Perth’s application as it continues to be reviewed.

To date only two municipalities have been approved for HAF funding: The City of London and The City of Vaughan.

According to McLean’s report, North Perth was contacted by CMHC in September to provide clarity on some information in the municipality’s submission. It was communicated at that time that all applications will be first reviewed for eligibility and then CMHC will circle back and begin to score all eligible applications.

No further timelines were provided.

In order to apply, the municipality previously created a Housing Action Plan in conjunction with information from a Perth County Housing Needs Analysis.

Housing Needs Analysis

According to the Housing Needs Analysis commissioned by Perth County, North Perth will need an additional 2,420 housing units to accommodate the anticipated population growth in the next 10 years. Of those units, 465 should be ffordable housing units and 1,955 market-value units.

Should North Perth’s application to the Housing Accelerator Fund be accepted, it could receive over $8 million to support housing projects.

The projected housing units over the next three years with and without funding, based on growth targets, were prepared by Watson & Associates Economists, the same firm that created the Housing Needs Assessment.

“It is anticipated, without HAF, North Perth’s growth over the next three years will be 678 units,” McLean wrote in her report. “With HAF, it is projected to increase by an additional 192 units (total of 870). If North Perth’s HAF application is approved, the municipality can anticipate approximately $8,019,307 in funding, or $41,767.22 per unit.”

Erik Karvinen of Watson & Associates presented the Housing Need Analysis, and three-year housing growth targets to North Perth council on Oct. 23. He previously presented the regional report to Perth County council last month.

Karvinen’s report showed there is a missing middle. This is what he described as multi-unit homes such as condos, apartments, and townhouses which are available for both purchase or rental.

His baseline three-year housing forecast for multi-unit homes was 230; versus the accelerated housing target three-year housing forecast for multi-unit housing was 672.

“The accelerated forecast represents a 28 per cent increase in housing growth over the baseline forecast,” Karvinen wrote in his report.

The analysis also looked at the current supply of houses in the development-approval process at the county-wide level. According to the report, there are about 1,700 houses total at the Perth County level and in North Perth specifically, there are about 1,150 units in process.

“And while the overall quantum is reasonable, what we do realize is the supply is not well aligned with the demand we identified, especially as it relates to rental and affordable housing units,” Karvinen said. “It is very important that the county and North Perth consider initiatives to help support and enable the market as well as affordable housing projects to be added to the development pipeline to help the county as well as North Perth to meet the current and future housing needs identified through this work.”

Mayor Todd Kasenberg called Karvinen’s presentation a “fulsome presentation with quite a few numbers that should be worrying to most of us.”

“I’m going to tread cautiously now,” Kasenberg told council. “I will point out at this point now, the county does not have a housing action plan. And yet many of the things that our guest has spoken about include policy and choices that are made in planning which is a county function.

“And I tread cautiously because I will remind this council that I introduced a motion at Perth County, calling on Perth County to build an action plan for affordable housing, and that was turned down. I can’t call for its reconsideration. So I am stuck procedurally. I can’t ask for another kick at the can. My colleagues at the county council must do so. So I will speak to all of my colleagues in lower-tier municipalities, can we look at reconsidering the development of a housing action plan for Perth County.”

North Perth Housing Action Plan

Also part of the HAF application is the North Perth Housing Action Plan, which was developed with the findings from the Housing Needs Analysis.

“If the municipality’s submission to the Housing Accelerator Fund is not successful, this action plan will continue to be used as a tool to support the implementation of the municipality’s strategic priorities related to housing,” McLean told council on Oct. 23.

The action plan is made up of 16 initiatives, some of which are:

encouraging accessory dwelling units (a second smaller unit on the same property as a primary unit);

enable mixed-use redevelopment of municipal-owned properties;

allow increased housing density on a single lot including promoting “missing middle” housing forms typically buildings less than four stories;

implementing new/enhanced processes or systems such as case management, e-permitting, land and building modelling to streamline planning processes;

implementing disincentives, costing or fee structures to discourage such things as unit vacancy, underdeveloped/idle land, and low-density forms of housing;

promoting and allowing more housing types that serve vulnerable populations, and;

partnering with non-profit housing providers to preserve and increase the stock of affordable housing, to name a few.

Among the action plan’s larger initiatives is the creation of a process for the disposal of municipal-owned land assets for the development of affordable housing. This would guide the development of 212 acres of municipally- owned designated lands that are anticipated to be brought into the urban boundary through the new Perth County Official Plan renewal (2023-24) and establish a servicing strategy (water, wastewater, stormwater) for other lands within the broader study area.

Earlier in the meeting on Oct. 23, during the presentation of the Housing Needs Analysis, Coun. Allan Rothwell suggested North Perth build something similar to the affordable housing projects that the City of Stratford recently built.

The housing complexes he was referring to are a 35-unit complex at the cost of $4.5 million, and most recently a project with 27 units for $9.7 million.

“I think it is crucial if we are going to be ambitious and we are going to take up the need for the residents who want to live here, I’m going to encourage county councillors to have direct conversations with the staff at the City of Stratford because we need to have a project similar to those developments within this community,” he said. “The time has come. The gauntlet has been dropped for all of us, and the work here has shown there is a real need within our community to provide funding to build purpose-built rentals in both the private and public sectors, and the only way we are going to get that is if we truly work together.”

The final initiative in the housing action plan is the investigation, planning, and construction of an affordable housing complex.

According to the action plan, R.J. Burnside and Associates has been retained to complete a phase one and two environmental site assessment (ESA), and record of site condition (RSC) submission for the former CNR land located abutting the trail system in Atwood on Concession 8.

The purpose of the studies is for the proposed change in property use of the site from industrial use (former rail lands) to residential use (potential housing development). The action plan report explains that work commenced in the fall of 2023 and the 10-year capital budget forecast indicates a potential housing build in 2025 at an estimated cost of $3 million.

Listowel Ward Coun. Sarah Blazek strongly disagreed with the proposed project and provided a personal testimony as to why she had little faith in the project.

“Please know I do not raise this lightly given the dire need for affordable housing that we are facing,” she said. “However, I have big concerns about investing time and resources into the consideration of building such a complex in this location. I grew up in a household that relied on affordable housing. I was raised by a single mom of four kids. We struggled greatly with food and security and we moved a lot. Most of that time was spent in Listowel. There was a brief period of time in ‘96-97, when we rented a place in Atwood. Those roughly 18 months were challenging and short-lived because unfortunately Atwood could not provide us with what we needed and frankly not much has changed in the 27 years since.”

She went on to explain that families needing affordable housing also need jobs, childcare, grocery stores, and public transit, all of which Atwood does not have.

“Atwood is a beautiful and wonderful community and I am not saying it will not one day offer these things, but it doesn’t offer these things right now and we are talking about investing dollars right now,” she said. “If we want to successfully invest in affordable housing then we need to take a long hard look at what those households really need. And where they will have access to those things.”

She asked staff to provide more information to help her understand why this location was selected.

“I really want to fully support this project and I do very much understand from personal experiences and from being in this community, how vital this type of housing is for the success of many families and individuals,” she said. “But unless someone can make this location make sense to me, I am of the opinion that continued time and resources spent on affordable housing in this particular location, at this time, may be a misguided use of taxpayers’ dollars and I cannot support it.”

McLean agreed with Blazek’s concerns and added that the proposed work is necessary for any future work on this property.

“If council does decide to not move forward with a housing project here, it would still be valuable to complete the environmental studies so that this property could be used for other things in the future,” she explained.

CAO Kris Snell added further context.

“One of the reasons why this property was initially identified was because it was one of the properties that didn’t require us to go outside of a boundary settlement adjustment amendment currently for property we owned, in the municipality,” he explained. “That may change with the new county Official Plan, but that was why this location was targeted.”

Rothwell reiterated the need for a large-scale affordable housing project in North Perth and added that private individuals can help with some services.

“Atwood is undergoing significant change which it has never seen to this magnitude ever before,” he said. “Many people are going to be coming to this community, and many people especially in the Atwood community are going to be looking for additional services. We have to rely on private individuals to bring forward their desire for a grocery store… I don’t necessarily think it is the municipality’s responsibility to start a store, I think we have to leave it to the private market to undertake that.”

He added that it is his opinion that the ongoing development will spark change in the community.

“It is becoming more thriving especially in the new development when you see the housing that is developed there,” he said. “It is going to almost double the size of Atwood when it is completed. In my view of itself, it is going to change Atwood into something that it has never been before. There will be hustle and bustle, and there will be additional services to come… there is change coming and it is happening. We need affordable housing throughout North Perth, not just in Listowel, it has to be beyond just Listowel.”

Notice of Motion

At the end of the Oct. 23 North Perth council meeting, Blazek brought forward a notice of motion against the investment of time and resources into the proposed Atwood affordable housing project.

The motion called the investment made into the project “a large unnecessary commitment that should be given due consideration to ensure the investment is of the greatest benefit possible to those households who rely on affordable housing.”

The motion suggested council cease any further investment into an Atwood affordable housing project until council has been provided with the justifications for the selection of this location in the Elma Ward, over and above any other location in North Perth that could potentially offer better access to essential amenities, and until council determines to continue in this specific direction.”

This motion will be considered at the Nov. 6 council meeting.