During its regular meeting on Feb. 6, council members provided their unanimous support directing administration to provide a letter indicating the City’s commitment to affordable housing in support of a local housing association’s funding application.
The letter will help to leverage outside funding for Airdrie Housing Limited East Lake Apartments Project’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Rapid Housing Initiative three Program Application for Funding.
Both CMHC and the Government of Alberta recently announced they will be funding shovel ready affordable housing projects that can demonstrate “operational viability with no external operating support,” according to Jessica DeVreeze, housing policy strategist with the City.
“These standalone but stackable programs are an opportunity to leverage both City and [external] investment in the East Lake Apartments project to unlock capital contributions,” she said.
Shelley Sweet, managing director of Airdrie Housing Limited, said the letter represents one of the last pieces needed for the housing association to apply for the Rapid Housing Initiative.
The program will offer capital contributions for the rapid construction of new housing and/or the acquisition of existing buildings for rehabilitation or conversion to permanent affordable housing.
“If awarded, this grant will cover the balance of construction costs and allow the project to move forward to full completion,” Sweet said during the meeting.
According to DeVreeze, the presentation responds to Council’s request to administration to seek out external funding opportunities to support affordable housing in Airdrie.
“Like the rest of Canada, there is a significant shortage of affordable housing in our community,” DeVreeze explained. “The need identified in the City of Airdrie 2017 Housing Needs Assessment was for 2000 homes and these included a variety of type and tenure.
“But the biggest and fastest growing need is with Airdrie’s renters.”
The City employee shared the best and first solution to the housing shortage is to “unlock a greater supply across the housing continuum,” so people have options to access the type of housing they need.
DeVreeze said the community will need to greatly increase the capacity in the below market housing sector, adding both Airdrie Housing Limited and Rocky View Foundation are actively working to this end.
“The Rocky View Foundation has indicated their intent to expand their service to serve other vulnerable residents who are not seniors,” she shared. “So when this happens, that is another great step in the right direction. We also need to work to attract other providers to Airdrie.”
Contributions from all orders of government are also required to see the housing crisis addressed.
“Many programs require leveraging funing from all three orders of government in addition to community investments,” she said. “We need to have local contributions ready, including land, money, or both.”
