Cambridge has joined other municipalities in the region in successful bids to get help from the federal government to build more affordable housing.
Today at city hall, the federal government announced over $13.3 million in funding to help Cambridge build more affordable housing, create a new system for approving building applications and cut red tape to get shovels in the ground faster.
"This funding will allow us to continue to build on what we have at the pace necessary to provide more homes for those in our community and those still to come," said Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett.
The federal government and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) have created the Housing Accelerator Fund to help build more homes and keep up with demand.
The city applied for the program back in October, asking for $21 million to help for a plan that would have seen 603 residential units built over the next four years.
Kitchener and Waterloo have already been approved for funding through this program, each getting $42.4 million and $22 million investments respectively.
Although the city's funding amounts to a little more than half of what it had asked for, Cambridge MP Bryan May said this investment in Cambridge will help fast track 350 homes and help build 3,500 more over the next decade.
"What we need is bold action and fearless innovation. We need systemic change to how we build times in this country," said May.
"Here in Cambridge systemic change is the establishment of a pool of land as part of the regional rapid building sites program to build more affordable, attainable and market rate multi-user and multi-unit housing."
Getting shovels in the ground hasn't been easy for the city over the last two years, despite signing a pledge to the province to help get 19,000 new homes built by 2031.
The province is encouraging municipalities to meet their targets through the creation of the $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund, which rewards municipalities that reach at least 80 per cent of their annual target with funding, and a bonus for municipalities that exceed their targets.
Cambridge failed to meet its first goal last year, meeting only 1,043 housing starts, or 75 per cent of its target 1,393.
Based on its potential share of the Building Faster Fund, Cambridge would have been eligible for $4.8 million if it had achieved 100 per cent of its goal.
Both May and Liggett spoke about using land already owned by the city to entice developers to build highly subsidized affordable housing.
When asked about the land that could be developed as a part of this initiative, Liggett only gave a 1.1-acre lot at Grand Ridge Drive and Cedar Creek Road as an example, noting that no developer has offered to build there yet.
"We have previously offered up land in the city of Cambridge for people who supply that type of housing and we have not had any takers at this point in time," she said.
This "pool" of municipal lands that have been offered up by the city will fast-track useful lands for affordable and attainable housing.
According to Liggett, this creates a seamless and integrated program to provide development-ready land opportunities to housing providers with government support and incentives for construction. This is estimated to be a three-and-a-half-year timeline
This funding will also be used to create a new digital building permit approval process that utilizes artificial intelligence and 3D models to improve submission quality, speed up proposals and review timelines. The city estimates the new system will take just over two years to complete.
The city also plans on using some of the $13.3 million to put toward its Hespeler Road and Southeast Galt Community Improvement Plans.
These plans would allow for discounts or exemptions of relevant charges, community benefit charges, development applications and building permit application fees.
It also aims to increase the supply of land for parks and achieve subtle density increases on redevelopment sites.
"This funding made available through the Housing Accelerator Fund is critical to our endeavour of getting the initial framework established in order for us to tackle this housing shortage head-on," said Liggett.
"It's always great when tax funds from the people of Cambridge that are sent to the federal level that they come back to us to do the work that we need to do to provide the homes for those same people."
