Hastings County has been rejected for a federal housing fund, and officials are concerned.
Director of Planning and Development Justin Harrow told the county’s committee on planning on Tuesday that the county had a “good plan” for the Housing Accelerator Fund but it was rejected.
Deputy Warden Jenkins reported that the town of Bancroft would appeal. “The housing situation in general … the housing shortage accelerated in the past two weeks. It disappoints me that they raid the housing programs. There have been 7,000 applications (provincially) … a number of projects have not been approved. They seem to be overlooking a mechanism sitting right in front of their faces.”
The fund is meant to remove barriers to housing supply.
Harrow told the committee the government doesn’t seem to understand the tier system of partnership that the lower governments use.
“That decision centred around the fact the county doesn’t approve building permits, therefore couldn’t apply. It’s really unfortunate because for years it made a lot of sense.”
He said it’s “troubling since it puts eastern Ontario at a disadvantage. It’s unfortunate since there’s a short turnaround time. Some of our tier municipalities may not have resources to do these things. It is troubling in the sense it put our municipality and eastern Ontario at a disadvantage.”
Warden Bob Mullin called the government decision “very disappointing … they penalized us as a result … municipalities must apply on their own.”
Centre Hastings Mayor Tom Deline said, “It would expand our services, get services out there then they can expand housing. It would fill one third of the Hastings County (housing) need.”
Mullin added, “We need to send a letter … I contacted my MP but have had no response.”
The staff report by Harrow and CAO Connor Dorey wrapped up with these comments:
Given the county’s role in planning and development both at a county and member municipality level and considering the county’s initiatives proposed were completely in line with the intent of the HAF, it is troubling that the county would be considered ineligible, creating a barrier for municipalities to make meaningful changes to improve conditions to provide more housing.
Staff are concerned that this is again an example of how senior levels of government do not understand the needs of rural municipalities or the complexity of the relationships between upper and lower tier municipalities, particularly in eastern Ontario. Given the short turnaround time and level of information and details required by the application, most rural lower tier municipalities do not have the resources to prepare and submit a complete application. As a result, many municipalities are not able to submit an application putting rural and smaller municipalities at a disadvantage.
