Evidently no amount is too small to help fund affordable housing in Barrie.
Sitting as planning committee Tuesday night, councillors took about $36,000 for the preservation of built heritage grant programs within the community improvement plan (CIP) reserve and reallocated it to the affordable housing grant program. This will replenish the balance and continue funding development charges and per-door grants for affordable housing projects in 2021.
“Affordable housing is one of our strategic priorities and we’re looking at a balance here of $1.45 in that account, so unfortunately we have to set our priorities on this one,” said Coun. Gary Harvey.
The opening 2021 balance of the affordable housing CIP reserve was $237,874.
But Coun. Clare Riepma, chairman of the Heritage Barrie committee, asked the committee not to take half of the $72,348 left in the preservation of built heritage reserve for 2021.
“That committee has not been consulted on that request, and I’m thinking as well that we have some significant applications coming forward, “ he said. “Almost every month we add another building or two to the heritage registry and we can certainly expect to see more rather than less coming forward.
“I’m very reluctant to reduce the amount of money available," Riepma added.
The preservation of built heritage grant program started the year with $98,419, so it has spent $26,071 so far.
Mayor Jeff Lehman questioned whether this argument was worth the time.
“I would like to call the question, just given 36 grand is probably not going to build too many units of affordable housing,” he said.
Riepma’s amendment to stop the reallocation of the $36,000 was defeated by a majority of councillors.
The motion also removes half of the redevelopment grant program funding, or about $144,482 of the remaining $288,964, to the CIP reserve for affordable housing projects this year.
It will be considered for final approval at the Oct. 4 city council meeting.
Lehman did ask staff to give councillors numbers on what might be required to fund affordable housing projects in the remainder of 2021.
“Because of the urgency of the housing situation, if there are projects sitting unfunded right now, and you’re aware of those… if we could hear about that and understand what the number would be for us to fund those grants, to help those projects proceed,” he said.
During the first application intake period of 2021 for the CIP, the city received 13 grant applications. Of these, five were deemed to be complete and eligible in accordance with the requirements of the CIP. Two of the five were for affordable housing. The remaining applications did not meet the eligibility criteria of the CIP.
The affordable housing grant reserve has been depleted for 2021, following approval of the two affordable housing grant applications that were received during the first application intake period.
Of the five applications approved by the CIP grant review committee, funding was granted primarily for development and renovation projects in the urban growth centre, intensification nodes and corridors, and historical neighbourhoods.
The opening balance of the CIP reserve in 2021 was $714,279.
The allocation of CIP funding is distributed between the respective grant programs as follows — 55 per cent toward the affordable housing development grant program, 40 per cent toward the redevelopment grant program and five per cent toward the preservation of built heritage grant program.
The CIP provides financial incentives for eligible projects that target key planning and growth management objectives for development within Barrie. Eligible projects include affordable housing projects, brownfield site redevelopment and mixed-use developments within the urban growth centre, key intensification areas and the preservation of built heritage.
