Province to spend $629K on new affordable housing units over 3 years, $12M on repairs

Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephardacknowledges the province's plan to create 151 affordable housing units in the first three years of a newhousing agreement with Ottawa doesn't sound like much, given the 500 people who are currently homeless and the more than 5,000 households on the waiting list for affordable housing.

But shesays the decision was made to put more money toward repairsand renovations ofexisting affordable units as quickly as possible.

"We have many, many units that are out of service because they can't be renovated under the current budget. So it was really important to put money in the budget to not only maintain what we have but we also have units that are in enough disrepair from damage that we can't utilize them," she said.

"So we need to maximize our opportunities to get every single unit available for housing."

The province willspend$629,000 on building thenew housing units, compared to more than $12 million on upgrades over the next three years $7.2 million on public housing and $4.9 million on non-profit housing.

Department officials could notimmediately say how many unitsare in such disrepair that they can't be used, or how many will become available through the upgrades,but Shephard said there are "many" in the northern part of the province and the Saint John region.

"So it's a constant struggle to keep up with it all."

Back-end loaded agreement

Earlier this year, the province signed a $299.2 million, 10-year agreement with the federal government under the National Housing Strategy.

The 2019-2022 New Brunswick Action Plan calls for an average of 50 new affordable housing units to be built in each of the first three years a mixture of NB Housing and private units with housing agreements across the province.

Shephard said that's about 10 more per year than the previous plan and was negotiated inconsultation with stakeholders, clients and other departments.

An additional 1,111 units are expected to becreated in the final seven years.

Meanwhile, to help addresshomelessness this year, the department spent $2 million onextra emergency shelter beds in Moncton and Fredericton, butcut about 65 to 70 rent supplements, Shepard confirmed.

It's "unfortunate," but necessary, she said.

"When you have 500 people living on the street, you have to try to provide them with enough resources to at least keep them safe."

The cuts to rent supplements is temporary, according to the minister. She expects the agreements with private landlords to subsidize units and make them available to people in need will be restored in the next budget.

"We have to work within our means and we're doing more than we've done before. So we need to make gains wherever we can. And when the opportunities arise, we need to maximize those opportunities."

Proposed developer bylaw worth discussing

Asked about Montreal's proposedbylaw that will compeldevelopers to build a certain number of affordable and social housing units, or contribute to a fund that will finance social housing, Shephardcalled the idea "interesting."

She said the majority of affordable housing units in New Brunswick arealready built by the private sector with the government's help to make a certain percentage of them subsidized units.

"But I think it's interesting that we could put that into policy and I think with the help of our municipalities that it's worthy of looking at."

She said the municipalities have been quite willing to be at the table to discuss the homelessness issue.

"So I think that they would welcome the conversation," said Shephard.

"Once we explore,you know, the pros and the cons of it, I'm not sure where it will come out, but I think it's worthy of a discussion."

She is willing to commit to that discussion or anything else that could benefit the housing strategy, she added.

The bylaw wasadopted by Montreal's executive committee in June and is going through public consultations now, said Coun. Craig Sauv, the councillor responsible for housing.

"We think that in one year of signing this bylaw we'll be able to create 600 units of social housing and other several hundred units of affordable under-market housing and family housing," he said. "That's just from this bylaw alone. So it's a pretty powerful tool and a lot of people are very excited about it in Montreal."

Other jurisdictions are excited about it too, according toSauv. Neighbouring municipalities are considering adopting it, he said, and he's been fieldingcalls from officials across Canada, asking for details.

The bylaw is complex, saidSauv, but it makes it more expensive for developers to do the pay-out option, so they're more likely to build some turn-key affordable housing units.

That'sthe "best possible scenario" for the city because it avoids the headacheof dealing with a construction project and delivers the units to citizensin need sooner.

It's often referred to as the 20-20-20 bylaw, saidSauv, because it calls for 20 per cent non-profit housing, 20 per cent affordable sub-market housing and 20 per cent "family housing," which means three bedrooms or more to create more housing stock for families to live within the city core.

The initiative comes amid a housing crunch in Montreal.

The rental market has become increasingly competitive, due to increased demand and rising real estate prices, leaving low-income families especially vulnerable.

Sauvsaid the bylawmay not be a so-called magic bullet to solve homelessness, but he does believe it's a "piece of the puzzle."

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante wants the bylaw, which still needs to be approved by council,to be in effect by Jan.1, 2021.