The federal government has invested nearly $80 million towards housing in Halifax. The feds are using the Housing Accelerator Fund to build nearly 9,000 homes.
According to Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser, 2,600 of the units will be built within three years, with 8,866 built by 2033.
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage estimates his municipality needs nearly 20,000 new units to help the housing crunch in the city.
Fraser acknowledged that the city has “enormous challenges” with housing due to its population growth, citing it being one of the fastest-growing cities in the country and a push in downtown living over the past number of years.
The money comes from a one-time grant, and the municipality would not be able to apply again. While the feds are willing to sit back at the table, the minister responsible said, “It’s hard to identify any other areas that Halifax could go to allow us to build faster.”
“I expect were going to see rapid progress,” he continued.
Part of the agreement includes measures from the municipality to look at more densification in the area, including:
- Increasing height in Established Residential 3 Zones;
- Increasing height in Higher Order Residential and Corridor Zones;
- Increasing height and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) increases in Centre Zones;
- Increasing density near universities;
- Removing more minimum parking requirements;
- Increasing as-of-right development approvals
- Working with the Province to enable universal discharge of DAs
Savage said in a press conference on Thursday that the city has been looking to create rapid solutions to cure its housing crisis, and is hopeful that the cash will do that.
The area’s rapid growth has highlighted his need for an increase in housing.
“The extraordinary growth since COVID was unimaginable,” he said.
“We grew by over 20,000 last year, It’s entirely possible we’ll grow by over 30,000 this year.”
One of the city projects that they hope to use the money for is for shifting empty offices into residential spaces. The money invested Thursday allows the city to convert those spaces amid the housing crunch.
City staff say they also have mass-timber projects, which would use timber in their upcoming projects.
Money to Halifax comes from the $4-billion National Housing Accelerator fund, with 25 per cent of the $79.3 million received up front, and an additional 25 per cent for each year afterwards.
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