Helping Municipalities Build Faster and Better
Canada’s big-city mayors welcome the challenge of helping to solve the country’s housing crisis. Still, they don’t quite have all the answers to how they will apply their newest tool - the $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund. The fund was brought up in 2021, and the April 2022 federal budget contained guidance but not much for details. The budget reports that the 5-year fund would aim to remove barriers and help municipalities construct housing units rapidly in an innovative manner. The need for affordable housing is urgent, said Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, who also serves as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Big City Mayors’ Caucus chair. However, even with funding planned to roll out in 2022-23, there still are not a lot of solid answers as to how the funds will be spent.
There were a variety of housing initiatives outlined in the federal budget, but the Housing Accelerator Fund and generous price tag were among the few that directly targeted municipal action. The government gave a statement to the Daily Commercial News claiming that the fund ‘will construct 100’000 new homes by clearing up roadblocks to construction at the municipal level’. The target is expected to be reached by 2024-25.
Mayor Mike Savage claims that CAOs for big cities have been talking with government officials to determine the most effective mechanisms to deliver the results. The mayors also met with Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure, and Communities Minister Dominic LeBlanc during the FCM conference in early June to determine the next steps. The concept is to allocate money to cities where the need is greatest and get the money out as quickly as possible. The municipalities can partner with provincial governments, the building community, the private sector, NGOs, and housing advocates to get immediate solutions onto the market.
One effective model that Savage has identified is the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), launched in October 2020 through the direct involvement of municipalities. Initiating RHI principles, boosting planning capacity on a human resources level, and rushing the approvals process through enhanced digitization are three possible ways the cities could apply the Accelerator Fund. Funding for RHI is typically spent on municipal supportive housing projects, with modular housing allowing for rapid construction.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Minister of Housing, Diversity, and Inclusion says that the ministry aims to address roadblocks, such as the need for investments in staffing and technological support for municipal planning departments, application process improvements to reduce administrative delays in approvals, policy development, zoning reform, and infrastructure upgrades.
Addressing Affordability by Increasing Supply
To learn more about how the FCM mayor's plan to use the Housing Accelerator Fund, go to Canada.ConstructConnect.com:
“Savage said solutions need to be found from a wide range of sources and municipalities can contribute to the dialogue on issues not directly within their scope such as rising interest rates and the lack of labour to build the housing.
But the Accelerator Fund, in municipal hands, holds great promise.
‘As municipalities, we are the people who do the planning around development,’ he said. ‘I think there could be a real benefit to municipalities in terms of increasing our online capacity, our ability to do planning and development online, and also potentially in terms of human resources. We need more planners.’
A statement from the mayors at the FCM conference asserted their focus would be mainly on affordable housing. Savage said municipalities can address affordability by helping to increase supply in general and secondly by focusing on those in greatest need.
‘Affordability is a relative term,’ he said. ‘We need shelter for people who don’t have any income. We need deeply affordable housing for people who are struggling to find housing.’”
From FCM Mayors Aim to Flesh Out Housing Accelerator Fund - Daily Commercial News by Construct Connect
Photo Source: WIX - www.wix.com
In what ways would you use the fund to increase affordable housing if you were an FCM mayor?
Written by S2A Modular & Associates Inc.
July 8th, 2022