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Timmins, Ont., housing plan aims to spur development
City’s mayor says council has been under a lot of pressure to deliver on housing needs
CBC News
Posted: July 16, 2024
Timmins
The City of Timmins has a new action plan on housing to spur development and tap into funds from the province and federal government. (Tom Howell/CBC)
With homelessness high and vacancy rates low, Timmins council has approved a plan it hopes will spur development, tap into funding and help the city meet its housing needs.
The City of Timmins Housing Action Plan was approved in council this week, outlining a vision to encourage development of a variety of housing stock in the city over the next 10 years.
The plan also looks at ways to access provincial and federal housing funding to build more affordable housing.
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"There is no current federal or provincial program that provides loans, subsidies, or grants substantial enough to encourage or enable private developers or owners to create deeply affordable units, especially in northern Ontario," according to the action plan.
To increase affordable housing, the plan emphasizes subdivision development, pre-fabricated housing and intensifying housing where it already exists by adding units and developing empty lots.
Under the new plan, the city will maintain a minimum 10-year supply of land designated and available for new residential development and "residential intensification." The city will look at park land that could potentially be repurposed for housing, and reconsider by-laws that restrict development, like one that mandates parking spots on new builds.
The city partner will partner with the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board (CDSSAB) to enact the plan.
City dealing with homelessness, low vacancy, growth
The city's vacancy rate as of April is lower than 1.5 per cent, according to CDSSAB. The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Timmins, according to the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp., was $1,035 per month in 2023, up from $890 in 2021. Those prices don't include utility costs.
On top of that, city staff say growth in the mining sector is expected to add about 3,600 employees to the area, all of whom will need housing. Further, the Timmins Real Estate Board says there is demand for housing at "every price point in the market."
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Living Space shelter
In 2020 the Living Space shelter moved to a residential area of Timmins. Last week, dozens of people gathered in Hollinger Park to demand action on homelessness, among other issues. (Jimmy Chabot/Radio-Canada)
Approximately 55 per cent of Timmins households are outside of the affordability threshold, city staff say. There are also approximately 359 people on the By-Names List of individuals at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
Relocation review of Living Space emergency shelter in Timmins nearing completion
Last week, dozens of people gathered at Hollinger Park, demanding council do something about growing homelessness, among other issues.
Council under pressure about housing: mayor
Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau says council has been under a lot of pressure to deliver on housing needs. Boileau says spurring development is key to making more housing affordable.
"We just need to increase housing stock to be able to relieve some of the pressure off of the market," she said. "So the less houses there are for sale, the more it drives up prices."
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Mayor of Timmins, Michelle Boileau
Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau says the new plan comes as council has been under pressure to deliver on housing needs. (Tom Howell/CBC)
Patrick Ladouceur, assistant professor at Laurentian University's School of Social Work, says increasing housing supply, and subsidizing affordable rent, won't respond to the needs of the city's most vulnerable population.
"Unfortunately, if we don't have much more of a robust investment in social housing and even in rooming houses," he said.
"We're not going to respond to homelessness. And that's the case for a city like Timmins, but also other cities around Ontario."
Plan could lead to more housing funds
The plan will be presented to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August. Mayor Boileau says she hopes the plan will open up housing funds for the city.
Under a new provincial housing fund, cities of 50,000 people or more must have housing plans to access money for development. Timmins has a population of just over 40,000, but Boileau says having a plan in place could help the city get those funds.
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"We decided to be proactive, so we'll be setting our own targets," she said. "We put together our own action plan so that we could show them that we want to be a part of the solution as well."
Should funding from other levels of government remain unavailable, Boileau says the municipality will look to fund affordable housing development itself in partnership with CDSSAB.
With files from Rajpreet Sahota
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices
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