Affordable housing effort gets a boost in Sudbury

In Sudbury on Monday, the city’s housing supply strategy got a $16 million boost from the federal government.

The funds from the Housing Accelerator Fund will help cut red tape at the municipal level and accelerate the building of mixed-use affordable housing units.

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the Federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, said the $16 million shows the federal government is committed to being a strong partner with Greater Sudbury to address the housing crisis.

“This is directly focused on helping Sudbury do as much as they can to increase supply, unlock public lands to make sure there is more affordability there,” Erskine-Smith said.

“And really it’s a partnership working between the federal and municipal governments to make sure we are adding as much supply as possible and cutting red tape to get things moving and build housing faster.”

Mayor Paul Lefebvre said the money includes a condition of hiring someone to help developers accelerate complex housing builds.

“One of the conditions for the financing was to actually hire somebody … that is going to be supporting developers and promoters that want to bring forward these big multiplex projects … that are complex (and) take time,” Lefebvre said.

Severe housing challenges

Local MPs said the money will help address the city’s severe housing challenges and put Sudbury in a good position for growth.

“There will be a wide range of different homes and that is where the city has done a really good job,” said Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe.

“They understand what kind of housing we need within the municipality. There will be some that are for affordable housing there will be some that are high-density housing, first-time buyers.”

“This is an example of funds provided by the federal government to the municipalities to cut red tape, to increase the building permits so they are issued and followed through in a more rapid way,” added Nickel Belt MP Marc Serre.

Lefebvre said the funding will help build around 2,000 mixed-use affordable housing units in the next four years and more than 4,000 in the next decade.