BELLEVILLE – Mayor Mitch Panciuk says a new housing proposal from Habitat for Humanity will be a step in the right direction in terms of more rental accommodation in the city.
The 66 unit rental will be especially helpful to Quinte residents that have been struggling to find affordable renting options.
“Over the last 25 to 30 years we have seen a large growth in condos that were for sale, but we haven’t really seen rental stock increase.” Panciuk said. According to a 2020 Rental Market Report, purpose-built apartments are the largest share of rental options, even though the number of these apartments has not grown since 2011.
“We’ve had 600 and some odd units added since 2019 and it hasn’t even made a dent in the demand in the market. So that’s a concern that all cities have moving forward and that’s why we really have to focus on rental.”
The 600 units is part of the 1000 unit target that Panciuk set as his goal towards improving the rental shortage, with him saying that they’ve already completed 60% of this goal without any incentives.
“What we are trying to do is get the construction of new rental units as quickly as possible. That will take some of the pressure off, but it will also lead to more people wanting to come here as well.”
To tackle this problem, Panciuk said that they have introduced incentives to building companies to promote the construction of rental units.
“A lot of what we talked about at the housing summit in the Spring of 2019 had to do with finding ways to provide incentives to builders and developers to construct rental housing.”
And with the introduction of incentives, Panciuk says he is hopeful that there will be anywhere from 3000 to 5000 rental units being built in the remaining years.
Incentivized rental unit building is also a key part of the Habitat for Humanity proposal, which will work with companies to get the multi-unit building constructed.
“The housing project is not going to be a traditional Habitat project,” said the executive director of Prince-Edward Hastings Habitat for Humanity, Glenn-May Anderson.
“We won’t have people going out there, volunteers with hammers; we’re talking about something that is a major commercial enterprise that we’ll have to partner with engineer firms and actual construction companies to build.”
The proposed units will be a mix of both affordable housing, which would help Habitat families and vulnerable populations, as well as market rent housing, which will help sustain the local community financially.
The $26 million project will be mostly financed through the CMHC Housing Co-Investment Fund due to the donation of land from the city of Belleville, as well as provincial funding and community fundraising.
The multi-unit housing project, which will take at least three years to complete, also includes a program that would allow for someone to have part of their rent rebated in saving for a down payment of a house.
“What happens if you are in this community, and working in this community, how do you ever save for a down payment for a house in those circumstances?”
May-Anderson said that this proposed program would allow people to contribute financially, instead of with sweat equity, towards a house of their own.
“We know that there’s a need for people to have assistance when saving for a down payment.”
And for those that are thinking of buying a house, May-Anderson said that the new Habitat for Humanity project would help answer any questions or concerns.
“Homeownership is entirely different than renting and we want to make sure people have the skills to move forward.” May-Anderson said.
And part of gaining these skills would be found through the newly proposed Quinte Housing Hub, which would be an information centre that anyone can access.
“There’s no single place to go if you have questions from how to move one place to another, inside the housing market.” May-Anderson said they want to solve this problem by creating a resource centre that everyone can go for questions.
“We can hopefully provide a central location where people can go and where they can get all the information they need, regardless of where they are on the housing continuum.”
Image from CMCH-SCHL.gc.ca
Panciuk said that the city of Belleville plans on doing its part to make this project happen through donating the land, and not just a lot, for the multi-unit rental.
“This is the first time we will actively be involved by providing them with land, which is very exciting.”
The next steps for this Habitat project are to find an appropriate piece of land that the city could then donate. Proposals for possible land will be presented at the Sept. 28 city council meeting.
“I’m expecting that the decision will have to happen as we declare the land a surplus, so likely the earliest we could give them the land would be the 13th or 26th of October. But certainty by the end of November, if we have land, I don’t see a situation where it won’t happen.”
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