The City of Kamloops is expecting to get an update about its application for $15.6 million in grant funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation‘s $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund in the not too distant future.
Community Planning Manager Stephen Bentley says those details could come as soon as this month, as the federal government gradually makes announcements in communities across the country.
“We’ve not gotten a response from the CMHC yet, basically they said that they are awarding the funding to the larger municipalities first, and then they’ll be going onto the smaller and mid-size places like Kamloops,” Bentley told Radio NL.
“We’re just kind of sitting and waiting at this time.”
The City estimates that it would be able to create about 390 housing units over three years, if it gets the full $15.6 million that it applied for.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to get it,” Bentley added. “We put in a solid application and I think the fact that the province has put a certain amount of pressure on us to facilitate housing, I think that is supportive of our application.”
In August, Kamloops Community Planning Manager Julie McGuire said the city’s application for grant funding comes as a result of continued population growth at a time when there is a shortage of affordable housing.
“This is particularly true for what we refer to as the “missing middle” housing, which is generally higher-density housing in the middle of the housing spectrum,” McGuire said. “Examples include townhouses, duplexes, or other multiplexes.”
If the grant application is successful, McGuire says the money would be used to streamline development approvals in Kamloops as well as to amend local bylaws to allow for more residential density.
“All of these are incentives, ultimately its going to come down to the market to supply these,” Bentley said, referencing a proposal to potentially use revitalization tax exemptions and development cost charge reductions to incentivize the construction of more purpose-built rental housing units.
“We can relax our regulations to make housing easier to build, but ultimately somebody has got to build it.”
A total of 87 municipalities across B.C. have applied for Housing Accelerator funding, according to the CMHC, with only Vancouver ($115 million) and Kelowna ($31.5 million) with successful applications.
