Prince Edward County (PEC) Council heard from a collection of Eastern Ontario municipal delegates about a new regional affordable and social housing plan and voted to support it on Tuesday.

Bonnie Clark, Warden of Peterborough County, and Jim Pine, Chief Administrative Officer of the County of Hastings, were in attendance in their capacity as representatives of the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus (EOWC) to present their '7 in 7' regional housing plan, which aims to construct 7,000 new affordable and social housing units in the next seven years.

Right now, the demand for affordable community housing rental units sits at 12,000-14,000 across the region, with average wait times to access them being five years (to as much as ten years in some situations). Overall, the plan calls for $3.1 billion in investment to stimulate construction in six planned-for zones. As well, it hopes to incentivize an additional 21,000 market rate units as it unfolds. Currently, 1,854 of the 7,000 units are being allotted to the Hastings/PEC/Lennox & Addington Zone, with the county’s portion being preliminarily projected to cost around $65 million.

Funding is expected to come primarily from both the federal and provincial governments, as well as through public–private partnerships (P3s). Eastern Ontario municipalities will be expected to contribute funds toward the plan’s project management, land acquisition and legal costs.

After hearing the presentation, council voted to write a letter in support of the plan.

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