The City of Vancouver is setting its sights on creating at least 65 more affordable housing units with $31.8 million in new funding from Ottawa.
“We are partnering with the provincial government to see where we can have the biggest bang for the buck,” Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said at Monday’s announcement outside city hall, where he was flanked by Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre Hedy Fry and Ahmed Hussen, federal minister responsible for families, children and social development as well as the Canada Housing and Mortgage Development Corp.
Stewart said the city and province will be considering using the funds for modular housing, buildings under construction that could be purchased as well as land purchases.
The funding comes from Ottawa’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), launched in October of last year.
The RHI was originally armed with $1 billion in funding — the first phase of which saw $51.5 million allocated to the City of Vancouver for the creation of 135 affordable units.
Vancouver is now tapping into the next phase of funding — $1.5 billion — announced earlier this year.
The latest phase aims to create 4,500 units of affordable housing across the country.
The federal government is allocating $500 million directly to cities — no provincial involvement — while the remaining $1 billion has been allocated to the RHI’s projects stream.
The projects stream will deliver money to eligible applicants from last fall’s initial phase that did not receive funds.
Hussen said the goal was to create “over 65” units in Vancouver.
If only 65 units are created, the latest phase of the RHI sees Vancouver creating those units at a cost of $489,230 each, while the previous phase did so at a cost of $381,481 each.
But the RHI has so far outperformed its goals.
The program initially sought to create 3,000 units last year but eventually created 4,700 units.
This initiative comes as COVID-19 restrictions loosen and more people are widely expected to move to the Metro Vancouver region, both domestically and from abroad, putting additional pressure on housing prices.
“The pandemic has made the existing housing challenges that much worse,” Hussen said.
"And the people who have found themselves in precarious housing positions are the ones who are also most vulnerable to COVID-19."
Money allocated to the city must be spent within 12 months of it being received.
