City to use federal funds to help non-profits build affordable housing

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The City of Fredericton could soon be offering grants to help non-profits develop affordable housing units.

Members of the city’s economic vitality committee voted unanimously Wednesday to send three new grant programs to council for approval.

Janet Flowers, the city’s affordable housing development co-ordinator, said two of the programs will be funded with a portion of the $10.27 million provided to the municipality from the federal government’s housing accelerator fund. The third will be covered by the city’s planning and development department.

“We’re excited to roll these programs out,” she said.

The programs covered under the housing accelerator fund include a grant program to help non-profits build capacity to develop housing, and another grant program for community housing groups to access funding to offset pre-development costs for new affordable housing projects.

Also being funded by the housing accelerator cash from Ottawa is a grant program titled “Rental Housing Program – Increasing Supply Through Incentives.” It’s aimed at increasing the city’s rental housing supply through incentives for non-profit and private sector developers. Flowers said incentives will be paid out per unit based on housing type and location.

The program being funded entirely by the city is the affordable housing permit and community planning fees grant, which Flowers said will support “deeply affordable” housing projects. Eligible projects would have tenants spending no more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs and whose incomes are within Housing New Brunswick’s income limits.

Flowers said planning and permit fees would be paid upfront, then be reimbursed when developers apply for building permits.

“While these fees are not a significant portion of the cost for a project, it is important for non-profit developers to have any sort of cost reduction to keep the rental rates affordable,” she said.

Flowers said this year’s planning and development budget includes $159,000 for housing support, which will fund the permit and planning fee grants. She said any applications received after the budget is spent will be held for subsequent years.

Eligibility is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, Flowers said, but the city hasn’t received any requests under the program yet.

Flowers said $500,000 was assigned for the non-profit capacity building grants, which will help new groups wishing to develop housing and existing groups needing more resources to keep providing housing or expand their efforts. Applicants will receive $15,000 each.

“Many non-profit groups and community associations and housing providers lack the practical knowledge required to go through this complex maze of consultants and regulations and approvals to build an affordable housing project with or without long-term subsidies,” she said. “The goal of this particular grant is to provide funding to assist these non-profits and co-ops and charitable organizations to look at gaps in their capacity and develop strategies to close those gaps.”

Flowers said $2.3 million has been earmarked for the rental housing incentive but there’s flexibility through the federal funding to reallocate funds between these grants and other initiatives.

Mayor Kate Rogers said it’s been known for a while that the non-profit sector should be part of the solution to the city’s housing crunch.

“We’ve been looking for ways to do some capacity-building in the community, and now we have ways to do that with the housing accelerator funding,” she said. “I believe it’s critical, and I’m very optimistic that sector is going to step forward.”