The City of Windsor continues to push hard for additional funding to help build more homes throughout the area.
During Monday's meeting, council approved an administrative request to seek millions of dollars in federal funding to build more home to ease the housing crisis throughout Windsor, and the Province of Ontario.
The fund, called the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), aims to encourage more affordable housing and mixed-use construction.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift, senior economic development officer Joe Baker says there is a potential for $40-million to be paid over four years to entice developers to build more.
Baker says the City of Windsor has put together an action plan with four initiatives for a framework to create new and additional units, which include intensification, affordable housing, improving the development process within City Hall, and a green development standard.
A recent report from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows that the housing crisis is worsening throughout the region, and cities like Windsor are quickly becoming unaffordable for buyers and renters.
Baker says if they receive money, it will be spent on the initiatives.
"We do have some initiatives that are in that action plan that deal with affordable housing. So, we most likely will plan to shift some of that money aside for those initiatives, and also we can look at spending money on housing related infrastructure whether that's sewers, roads, something that may open up a subdivision for future development as an example," he said.
He says between 2020 and 2022 on average there were 900 net new residential units, and they're hoping to increase that.
"With this program, we're looking at moving that number and raising the bar up to 1,300 units per year. Hopefully we get the community uptake with developers and others in the city that will take advantage of these initiatives that we're proposing. So, looking at about 400 units per year in comparison over the last three years."
Baker says at first they would fill areas that are already serviced.
"We'd be targeting those specific areas to allow for a higher density of units in those areas,' he continued. "Obviously we do have other areas, the Sandwich South area out by the Windsor Airport, which is more of a long-term thing that we're focusing on, but that certainly could be something we introduce into this as well."
Baker adds the City should know by the fall what the results of the request are.
He says he's hoping an agreement would be made quickly so that work could begin in fall to early winter at the latest.
The HAF program is expected to lead to 100,000 more housing permits across Canada.
- with files from AM800's The Shift & CTV Windsor