By Cecilia Nasmith
The Eastern Ontario Warden's Caucus regional housing plan called 7 in 7 was introduced to Northumberland County council at its February meeting.
Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore explained this regional initiative to deliver 7,000 new affordable community rental units over seven years, and take a bite out of the estimated 12,000 to 14,000 affordable community housing rental units needed to clear waiting lists.
The average wait time for these units is five to 10 years and in Northumberland, Moore said, the waits tend to be on the high end of that range.
These programs have a three-to-one multiplier effect, she added, meaning the plan stands to incent an additional 21,000 attainable market-rate units from both private and non-profit sectors. That means a total of 28,000 units.
Similarly, the estimated $3.1-billion investment for the 7,000 units should generate an estimated $9-billion in economic activity.
The partnership behind this initiative would see the EOWC team up with both provincial and Federal governments as well as both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
In the breakdown of costs and units, Northumberland and Peterborough are lumped together as a unit. At this point in the planning, these two municipalities are expected to come up with $581.2-million and receive 1,330 units.
It should be a big boost to the regional economy, Moore said, if for no other reason than the fact that workers might otherwise find it a challenge to locate a place to live.
The EOWC will work with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network and Eastern Ontario Leadership Council, as well as KWM Consulting Services Inc., to create a regional business case for the project. By summer, they hope to initiate Indigenous consultations and discussions with private and non-profit sectors, with a view to releasing RFPs by winter.
Councillors questioning the breakdown of units between Northumberland and Peterborough, as well as the distribution of units within the county, were told that those details will come at a later stage.
“It's early in the process,” Moore said.
“If the group is successful in getting financial commitments from other levels of government, they will look at RFPs, where land is available, where there's interest – but that's a ways down the road.”
Warden Mandy Martin applauded the EOWC for this proactive approach, which won kudos when presented at the recent Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference to the province – which is pursuing its own goal to build 1.5-million homes by 2031.
“We didn't go in with an ask, we went with a proposal on partnerships and moving forward – and that attitude is so different from so many areas of the province, where people go in hammering and asking for money,” Martin said.
“But we are all on-side with this, and we understand this is very preliminary.
“And we want it on the record this is a proposal and this is where we start. We haven't got time to spend five years studying this. We have to make a plan.”
