Windsor council approves $38.8M plan to build 150 affordable housing units
For the first time in three decades, the City of Windsor will build new affordable housing — thanks to a $38.8-million plan to create up to 150 units.
Councillors on Monday unanimously approved a plan to construct a multi-storey building at 3100 Meadowbrook Lane in the east end, likely starting construction next year and welcoming residents in 2020.
“This is a great news story,” Jelena Payne, the city ’s community development and health commissioner, said Tuesday. “That’s partly because it has been a long time since we’ve seen a significant investment in the building of new affordable housing in our community.” The last time the City of Windsor built affordable housing was 106 units in 1987.
The latest Windsor initiative includes tapping into the federal government’s $40-billion National Housing Strategy and other sources for grants and low-interest loans. If all goes well, the city would contribute $11.7 million — though councillors committed to the project either way, because of the need in the community.
Payne said the city’s waiting list for affordable housing has climbed to 4,700 — the highest ever and double what it was 18 months ago. “Part of that is due to the economic success in our own community,” she said.
“As more people get jobs and more people come into the city, there’s more of a demand for housing.
“So some landlords who maybe five years ago were willing to take at-market or even below-market rent, are now even evicting people and renovating their places and charging high rent. “Unfortunately, that does not bode well for low-income earners.” One-bedroom apartments, which often went for $600 to $800 per month two years ago, now cost as much as $1,000 or more.
Jim Steele, the CEO of the Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation which put together the business plan to build muchneeded affordable housing, said the Meadowbrook Lane build will help immensely. “We are quite excited,” he said. “It’s not going to solve the whole problem. But no one solution is going to solve it. We have to do a bunch of things and this is a great start.”
The housing corporation, which operates on a $40-million annual budget, provides rent at roughly 30 per cent of market rate for geared-to-income clients.
The Housing Corporation had proposed five options to city council ranging from 30 to 150 units. Steele was encouraged to see council approve the highest amount proposed and said Mayor Drew Dilkens has been supportive throughout the process. Steele called the Meadowbrook project a passive-house design — in other words, highly energy efficient. Steele hopes monthly energy bills for individual units could be as low as about $20. With Windsor’s aging affordable housing stock, which costs more to run, Steele hopes the Meadowbrook building might even inspire similar construction in Windsor in the future. “Once this first one gets built, it will help our confidence and we will hopefully keep them coming,” he said. “We’re excited that the new building could be a showcase for other builders to look at.” Ron Dunn, executive director of the Downtown Mission which helps homeless and disadvantaged people, applauded the city’s commitment to finally building more affordable housing.
“The housing shortage is as much of an epidemic as the opioid crisis or the mental-health epidemic we’re in now,” he said. “And it’s all linked. How do you concentrate on wellness if you have no place to live?”
The Downtown Mission, in the
process of buying the main branch of the Windsor Public Library, will put in 34 affordable housing units on the second floor — a renovation that could be complete by early 2019. “It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what the city needs, but it’s a great start,” Dunn said. “So if we do ours, and the city does theirs, and other agencies do some more, we can end functional homelessness.”