Thunder Bay a 'top-performing city' in federal housing accelerator program: report

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 13, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The City of Thunder Bay is simply a "top-performing city" successful the national Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) implicit the program's archetypal year, a study going to metropolis assembly connected Monday states.

The metropolis volition person up to $20.7 cardinal done the money if it meets its lodging targets: that wealth is specifically intended to fast-track the improvement of much than 600 caller lodging units, to assistance the metropolis scope a full of 1,691 caller homes by February 2027.

"We had a very-successful archetypal twelvemonth implementing the lodging accelerator money program," said Summer Stevenson, HAF programme manager with the city. "Thunder Bay issued permits for 355 caller units, and past erstwhile we relationship for units lost through demolition, we deed 345 nett units, which is 102 percent of our twelvemonth 1 target, which is fantastic news."

Stevenson said top-performing cities — oregon cities "that some met their archetypal twelvemonth people and are connected way with their approved enactment plan" — are eligible for further funding, though however overmuch much backing is disposable is as-yet unknown.

"We person submitted a petition for further backing to enactment a vacant and dilapidated buildings program," Stevenson said. "This would beryllium successful summation to each of the initiatives that are already successful our approved enactment plan."

The vacant and dilapidated buildings program would impact renovating unused buildings to make lodging units, oregon tearing down buildings that can't beryllium rehabilitated truthful the tract could beryllium utilized for different purposes, she said.

Stevenson said the metropolis expects to perceive backmost successful mid-April.

"We person to hold for each municipalities to get successful their yearly reports earlier they'll marque immoderate decisions astir this excavation of funding," she said.

In immoderate case, the programme is moving up into twelvemonth two, and the metropolis volition erstwhile again beryllium accepting applications for the "Additional Dwelling Unit Grant Program, Affordable Rental Housing Funding Program, Construction Assistance Grant Program, and the Multi-Unit Residential Grant Program," the study states.

Stevenson said applications volition beryllium accepted from March 20 to April 17.

"We volition besides beryllium completing a reappraisal of the further dwelling portion programme to effort to look at, is this thing that could beryllium successful Thunder Bay beyond the beingness of the lodging accelerator fund?" she said. "In summation to those grant-based programs, we'll besides beryllium looking astatine the infrastructure projects underway this year."

"There's 3 infrastructure projects that volition assistance enactment our semipermanent lodging goals, and besides further enactment connected the archaeological management plan."

In addition, the study states the metropolis volition beryllium "administering the surplus onshore strategy and merchantability of lands for housing," and "Working with the Mayor's Taskforce connected Building More Homes Advisory Committee ... to reappraisal existing assistance programs and urge imaginable modifications to beryllium implemented successful Year Three."

"Council tin expect a study backmost connected the programs successful June 2025."

More accusation astir the assistance programs tin beryllium recovered connected the Let's Build Thunder Bay website.