The City of Windsor is moving closer toward meeting its 2024 provincial housing targets.
As of Aug. 14, the city has successfully initiated 924 housing starts, or 85 percent out of the province's target of 1,083 housing starts for the year.
The figure means the city is in line to receive provincial funding through the Building Faster Fund, which rewards municipalities that meet or exceed 80 percent of their annual housing targets.
Ward 10 councillor Jim Morrison, chair of the city's development standing committee, says they are moving as fast as they can at city hall.
"When we bring forward something and rezone it, it seems like it's on the next council meeting, and at the same time, there's many people working on the plans. I know it's never fast enough, but for the builders that want to build right away, we need to prioritize those folks and get the shovels in the ground," he says.
The city is touting several measures that have played a part in helping meet the target, including a specialized Development Application Coordinator team to serve as a single point of contact for customers throughout the development application process and reduce processing time.
The Housing Solutions Made for Windsor plan is also being cited as a reason for increased housing development, as the plan includes opening municipal lands ready for development, a vacant home tax to boost the availability of the current housing stock, and official plan amendments to focus intensification on key areas along major thoroughfares and transit routes.
Morrison says he oversees the rezoning of thousands of properties in his role on the development committee.
"Last year, I know we were over 3,200 units that went through rezoning. This year we're on pace for that which leads to the building permits," he says.
Achieving 85 percent of the target could result in the city receiving over $2.9 million in funding, hitting 100 percent of the target could result in over $3.4 million being leveraged from the fund, while achieving 110 percent of the target could see the city receive over $4.1 million.
Morrison says around 1,000 people are coming to Windsor every month.
"We're not building that many units, so we have a challenge ahead of us. So we need to keep moving it forward, so I'm proud of what we're doing. I'm also really happy to see the mix that we have that we're building right now. We need apartments, and we need apartments because we can build them fast, they're sustainable, they're efficient, and they're environmentally sustainable," he says.
The city's overall target is to build 13,000 new homes by 2031.
As of August 2024, the city has issued permits and given planning approvals for an additional 2,582 new residential units.