Regina’s Executive Committee approved an action plan to see the city apply for the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).
If their application succeeds, the city could access $36.2 million to approve 1,110 permits for housing units over the next three years.
With the committee’s approval, the plan will go before the city council next week for support. The application has to be submitted to the federal government of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) by June 14.
To be eligible for funding, the city must:
- Commit to a housing supply growth target;
- Identify a minimum of seven Action Plan initiatives that the city will undertake to achieve the housing supply growth target;
- Complete or update a housing needs assessment; and,
- Submit periodic reports to CMHC reporting on the progress of the initiatives and details on how HAF funding was used.
Key to the application is a council-approved action plan that outlines a housing supply growth target, additional targets for multi-unit and affordable housing, and at least seven initiatives that will help the City achieve those targets.
Overall the city brought forward 11 initiatives apart of the action plan:
- Enable high-density development within the City Centre.
- Enable mid- and high-rise development along urban corridors and main transit routes identified in the Transit Master Plan.
- Advance the development of missing middle housing in central neighbourhoods.
- Support the provision of greater housing diversity in established neighbourhoods.
- Encourage conversion of non-residential buildings to residential (e.g., office conversions).
- Preserve and increase affordable housing stock in partnership with non-profit housing providers.
- Support pre-development work for housing projects, in particular affordable housing.
- Reduce Council approval for housing-related Discretionary Use applications.
- Create a process for the disposal of city-owned land assets for the development of affordable housing.
- Align infrastructure planning to add capacity, increase safety, and improve the quality of the public realm in the City Centre and central neighbourhoods.
- Update the Development Charges Model2 to support long-term growth
If the application is successful, the city will use $1 million from the funding to develop a plan to spend the rest of it.
The city would also receive the funding in four different installments. The first set of funding would be some this fall, with the other three quarters coming annually in the fall until 2026.
