City housing grants might have to rise to $1M a year
Approving sharp increase to meet demand up to new council
Victoria would have to quadruple its funding for affordable housing grants to $1 million a year to meet anticipated demand, staff say.
The city currently puts $250,000 a year into the housing reserve fund, which is available to non-profits at the rate of $10,000 per bedroom to encourage and assist in development of buildings with lower rents.
But the city will have to boost that annual contribution to $1 million a year to meet both the anticipated demand and newly updated housing targets, councillors were told Thursday.
The size of the estimated increase, which will have to be agreed to by the new council after the Oct. 20 election, raised a few eyebrows around the council table.
“I would urge the next council to seriously consider the recommendations around the increase to the fund,” Coun. Marianne Alto said, adding that while “it does seem like a leap,” housing affordability is a priority for council and the city should look at a budget that supports that.
There is no question that affordable housing is the number one concern on everyone’s mind in this election campaign, Mayor Lisa Helps said in an interview, noting that an analysis will have to be done to determine what increase is appropriate.
“I think we have to look at what responsibilities the city has because if we don’t collectively — the city, the province and the federal government — make significant investments in housing … we’re going to have a city that’s not going to be affordable to the average person and that doesn’t feel good,” she said.
“I don’t know if $1 million is the right number. It seems high, but we definitely need to do a detailed analysis.”
Staff say renewed interest by senior levels of government in building low- and moderateincome housing has led to an influx of requests for funding from the city’s housing reserve.
“This increase to $1 million per annum would allow the city to support the construction of approximately 80 per cent of the 120 rooms of moderate-income housing and 54 units of lowincome housing required per annum,” the report says.
“The remaining 20 per cent of the affordable-housing target is anticipated to be fulfilled through the city’s newly approved inclusionary housing and density bonus policy,” the staff report says.
As of Sept. 1 the fund has $1.19 million. There are two grant requests totalling $590,000 being evaluated and two letters of intent with requests for $2.39 million. A further $5 million in applications is anticipated before the end of this year.
“The balance of the fund will not be sufficient to provide for the approximately $8 million in funding requests that may be received before the end of 2018,” the report says.
Councillors have agreed to circulate proposed changes to the fund’s guidelines to non-profit housing providers for comment.
Proposed changes include: • Shifting emphasis to housing projects that cater to lower income levels. • Eliminate grants for units built outside city borders but within the Capital Regional District. • Give priority to projects that receive no other supports from the city.