Lennox and Addington County is contributing $36,000 towards the construction of over 28,000 housing units in Eastern Ontario over the next seven years, including affordable housing units.
The Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC) introduced their 7 in 7 project this year that looks to incentivize and support over 7,000 affordable community rental units, as well as over 21,000 market rate units. A request from the EOWC for $36,000 from Lennox and Addington County was approved by council. According to staff's report, the county's 2023 Housing Administration Budget includes enough funds to cover the cost of the request.
A report from the EWOC notes the project is expected to deliver multi-billion-dollar economic benefits, address homelessness, and support those that are looking to own a home. The project looks to support the province meeting their 1.5 million housing unit target by 2031.
After a feasibility study this spring, and now, approval from council, there are plans in place to carry out a long list of actions to advance the project. These actions include securing $150,000 in funding, developing a template that can be used by lower tier-municipalities to apply for additional funding opportunities, exploring opportunities for financial aggregators to support the project, and developing an immigration, workforce and skills, and housing strategy across the EOWC. Staff noted a number of the actions that will be taken to advance the project are useful for the county's own housing initiatives regardless of whether or not they're able to secure provincial and federal support.
Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Orchard explained why it's a good project for the county to be involved with.
"The number of studies that they're going to do to do this work compliment the work we do in social services, and compliment the work of PELASS, and we have the money within the PELASS budget to pay for it," said Orchard.
There has been no confirmation of provincial or federal funding at this time.
The EOWC represents 103 municipalities across rural eastern Ontario, including 90 local municipalities, 13 upper and single-tier members, with a combined population of nearly 800,000 residents. In 2022, the county hosted an EOWC housing summit to come up with better ways of working together and coordinating advocacy efforts for other levels of government. At a meeting in October, the EOWC passed a motion that the $468,000 required for the project by March 31, 2024 is to be shared equally amongst the 13 member municipalities. Each municipality are now taking it to their own respective councils to decide upon their participation.
Development of the 7 in 7 implementation plan and strategic integration plan will be up for review by the EOWC near the end of March 2024.
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