St. Catharines gets $2.8M for affordable housing

St. Catharines will receive nearly $3 million in provincial funding to encourage the development of high-rise affordable housing buildings in the city.

The funding, announced Friday by St. Catharines MP Jim Bradley, will provide $2,842,631 to the city to be used to reimburse development charges to builders of high-rise, mid-rise and townhouse rental housing.

“It is important that people in Ontario have an affordable place to call home, regardless of their housing needs or where they live,” Bradley said in a media release, adding that he is pleased that the “excellent application” from the city resulted in the funding allocation.

“More rental housing means more options when looking for a home, while creating vibrant communities.”

The funding is part a Ministry of Housing program providing up to $125 million over the next five years to reimburse Ontario developers for fees charged by some municipalities to help cover the increased costs associated with the new development, such as infrastructure upgrades in transit, water and sewer and road construction and repairs.

Although St. Catharines does not levy development charges itself, the city does collect fees on behalf of Niagara Region. The new funding will be used to reimburse developers of affordable housing properties for the regional development charges they pay.

Mayor Walter Sendzik said the provincial program “is the kind of seed funding we’re looking for that will help to create the conditions for additional rental units in the community.”

“There has been a lot of discussion about the lack of rental units in St. Catharines. We’ll be able to deploy these resources back into the development community, targeting the building of rental units in our community,” he said.

St. Patrick’s Ward Coun. Matt Siscoe, chair of the city’s budget standing committee, said city staff recommended a few months ago applying for the funding as a “pretty impressive incentive program for affordable housing units.”

“It does look like an efficient way to get this done,” he said. “Any dollar we can put towards affordable housing right now, I think is the right direction. It was really great to see the announcement from the ministry.”

Sendzik said the city will use the funding to create a new community improvement plan incentive program for suitable affordable housing buildings,

which should be ready prior to the fall municipal election.

“A lot of the CIP programs that we have done have been funded from our annual budgets. This is an opportunity where we didn’t take it from our budget. It’s something that we’re getting from the province.”

Bradley said the ministry’s ultimate goal in developing the program “was to make it as efficient as possible, so the housing gets built as soon as possible."

St. Catharines is one of 13 municipalities selected to participate in the program, targeted based on low vacancy rates. Niagara Falls, too, was among cities invited to apply for funding.

“We’ve targeted municipalities most in need of rental housing, those with low vacancy rates and high tenant populations where affordable rentals are the highest to find.”