Dieppe, N.B., developing housing plan as growth erodes affordable housing stock

The city council in Dieppe, N.B., adopted a measure on Monday to set aside $250,000 in grants for residential developers to encourage them to build more affordable housing units.

Projects started in 2023 are eligible as long as at least 30 per cent of the units are affordable and are also receiving funding from a provincial or federal program.

Dieppe city planner Charles-Éric Landry said the move is a first step to address residents’ growing concern over affordable housing.

“We are also working on a housing-needs assessment that will lead to a housing strategy,” Landry said Friday in an interview.

He said data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) showed that the median rent of a two-bedroom apartment rose by $300 in the past two years.

Dieppe is growing rapidly as part of the Greater Moncton Area, which is the fastest growing community in the country.

Matthew Hayes, a spokesperson for the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenant’s Rights, says while the grants are a step in the right direction, he wants to see New Brunswick municipalities adopt more aggressive affordable housing policies.

“Without spending any money, they could start regulating Airbnb. That would bring a sizeable number of units back onto the long-term market and that would have a meaningful impact for tenants,” he said.

Landry said the city is “looking at” regulating Airbnbs in the future.

“We know that it’s a big worry of a lot of people. It’s kind of hard to work with that. We’ve seen some examples in Charlottetown and Halifax that we might get inspired by,” he said.

Charlottetown regulates Airbnbs by restricting them to the owner’s primary residence.

The same will be true for Halifax AirBNB operators who live in residential zones, starting in September.

Hayes said municipal councils across the province seem unwilling to adopt affordable housing measures that could inconvenience property developers.

“Measures that need to be taken to provide more affordable housing for people in the community will have to be inconvenient for some of those interests. Councils have been completely unwilling anywhere in New Brunswick to take the measures that need to be taken,” he said.

He said without rent control, which is a provincial jurisdiction, initiatives like grants for developers won’t amount to tangible change for tenants.

Landry says the city is hoping to have the housing-needs assessment completed by the fall.

He said the housing policy will be influenced by the findings of the assessment.

He said while the city wants to encourage residential construction to accommodate the growing number of residents, there were policies in place to limit urban sprawl.

“We do have an urban boundary within which housing developments can occur. Outside of that, we don’t plan on growing the services, the sewer or (water supply),” he said.