Staff presented new ideas on affordable housing at the city of Guelph’s special workshop on Tuesday.
Staff members demonstrated how the city financially supports community partners, invests in infrastructure and makes more land available to support housing.
Among the presentation’s highlights are providing $5.5 million every year in development reduction fees to contribute to new housing supply.
In a news release, chief administrative officer Scott Stewart said the workshop provided the city with an opportunity to get into details of what they’re doing to get shovels in the ground.
“We’re here, we’re putting in the work, we’re spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars to make it happen. But we can’t do it alone,” Stewart said.
The city said community partners and other non-profit service providers, such as Wellington County, are also financially supported in order to manage and deliver critical housing services.
That would include $17 million in annual base funding for the city’s share of the provincially legislated social housing services provided by the county, the city’s designated service manager.
Other ideas include investing billions in infrastructure that supports growth, drafting policies that enable more housing, and reviewing city-owned property to see what might be sold so more housing can be accommodated.
Stewart added this is a collective problem, not just the city’s problem, and help is needed from other levels of government, community partners and developers to solve it.
The city said it’ll continue to collaborate with community partners and developers to get more housing supply, plus advocate to other levels of government for more funding for critical infrastructure to support the growing population and housing needs.
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