“The money is most welcome.”
Those were the words from Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart today, Feb. 9, as the federal government announced $25 million to help the city build housing faster.
The money, under Ottawa’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), will fast-track more than 650 housing units over the next three years and will allow the municipality to invest in seven projects to spur new housing.
City manager Raul Allueva told the Tri-City News that the cash will be used to:
- redevelop underused sites in growth areas
- incentivize purpose-built and affordable rental housing
- cut parking requirements city-wide
- delegate to city staff the approval of minor development variance permits
- strengthen partnerships with nonprofits to expedite affordable housing
- expand digital permitting to better processing times
- update design guidelines to reduce time spent on design review
Speaking at a news conference at the newly opened Robert Nicklin Place — an Affordable Housing Societies project with BC Housing and CMHC — Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam MP Ron McKinnon boasted the success of the $4-billion HAF launched by the Liberals last March.
Since last September, the federal government has committed nearly $40 million to help build 152,000 units and repair more than 241,000 units across Canada.
Mayor Stewart said he’s pleased to have “all three levels of government” coming to the table to address the housing crisis in Coquitlam and support rental suites.
“We need governments to listen to local government,” Stewart said, noting Coquitlam has been “a regional leader in enabling housing for many years.”
“We’ve been working diligently within our municipal mandate to improve housing supply in alignment with Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy.
"Through the implementation of Coquitlam’s Housing Affordability Strategy, there are currently a record of 12,000 new units of purpose-built rental, in addition to over 2,300 units of below-market and non-market rental in the development process in our community.”
