The City of Prince George will put in an application for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Housing Accelerator Fund.
Council approved supporting the application at tonight’s (Monday) meeting.
According to a report presented to council, the Housing Accelerator Fund aims to increase the supply of housing through incentives and accelerated processes.
“This program offers funding over a four-year period for initiatives that result in a net-increase in permitted housing units,” said Director of Planning and Development Deanna Wasnik.
Wasnik noted nothing has been finalized that will go in the application at this point.
“We can appreciate that we need to be strategic, it is a competitive process that we’re going through so we can’t hear all the details,” said Councillor Garth Frizzell.
“Some of the pieces in the fund, looking at the supply growth targets, trying to reach those targets, specific initiatives to grow the housing supply, and the third one, which Mayor Yu has articulated again and again, speeding up housing approvals, so this fund is hitting a lot of the sweet spots.”
It was also noted by Manager of Economic Development Deklan Corstanje that it’s too early to say how much money the city could receive from the fund, but there is an approximate dollar figure for a per unit base, with top-ups.
“Any unit gets a base amount per unit, and they’re trying to incentivize or encourage multi-family and affordable housing,” Corstanje said.
“So for every unit you get an additional top-up for that. We haven’t picked a target, we’re working on that number.”
According to the report presented to council, the 2022 update of the city’s Housing Need Report showed there’s a need of 8,123 more housing units in the timeframe of 2023 to 2031, roughly 1,000 units per year.
It was also noted 598 units were completed last year.
Other items discussed at tonight’s meeting included a potential relocation of the Visitors Centre, and a proposed mid-rise apartment building on Handlen Road.
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