Bruce County’s second Annual Housing Forum is bringing municipal representatives together to address affordability.
Commissioner of Community Development Claire Dodds says the forum gathered staff from the county and municipalities as well as elected officials to exchange information and understand the current state of housing in the county on April 11 in Walkerton.
“One of the things we are looking to get a deep understanding of is both the affordability and supply of housing in Bruce County. Through the housing forum, the planning director had some information around the supply and also housing completions,” says Dodds. “Over the past four years, we have had a little over 3,000 new units created and built in Bruce County and we have also had another a little over 3,000 new units approved through the planning process.”
She says outside of what the county has been building through the Bruce County Housing Corporation, most of the other homes built have been through private developers.
“Certainly we know the price point of housing in Bruce County, right across Ontario and Canada has certainly been exceeding what communities would see as affordable housing. One of the things we are looking at is developing a Housing Action Plan in order to look at different actions we can take that could potentially bring more what we call deeply affordable housing to market in order to meet broader community need,” says Dodds.
The plan has been in the works since the start of the year, and she says they aim to present it to county council in June. A new Housing and Homelessness Plan has also been in the works, which aims to look at other forms of affordable housing like transitional housing and supportive housing.
“The two documents are intended to go hand in hand to look at housing solutions right across the housing spectrum,” says Dodds. “One thing that we are really focused on at the county and with our municipal partners, is understanding that we are not the only level of government that needs to come together in order to put affordable housing solutions in place.”
The Housing and Homelessness Plan was put on hold after the province advised the county to wait until a review is completed.
As part of the second annual forum, municipal partners presented their housing priorities which will be included in the Housing Action Plan.
Dodds defines affordable housing as costing no more than 30 per cent of the household income and at the forum, they further defined what that price point would look like.
“For affordable ownership housing, it would be housing coming to market at $400,000 or less. With regards to rental, it would be housing that would be available for rent at the average market rent, which for Bruce County is defined by the province is $1,324 a month,” says Dodds.
She says they hope the forum will become a yearly event.
“It provides an opportunity, which is bringing folks who are engaged from multiple backgrounds and perspectives across the municipal and the county sector together to share experiences, to understand what is happening across different municipalities and also provides an opportunity for us to share information as we focus on understanding the affordability and supply of housing in Bruce County at a deeper level,” says Dodds.
