Saint John city council has taken significant steps to bring more than 1,200 new homes to the region over the next three years.

Council approved the city’s application to the $4 billion Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Housing Accelerator Fund, which has a goal of creating 100,000 more housing units nationwide. The fund also supports “the development of complete, low-carbon and climate resilient communities that are affordable, inclusive, equitable and diverse.”

The city has until August 18 to submit its application.

“We know that housing starts need to increase in Saint John,” says the city’s housing manager Andrew Reid. “Just to meet our growth targets they need to double.”

Reid says that historically housing starts haven’t kept up with demand, making the application to the accelerator fund extremely important.

“If action is not taken through initiatives such as the housing accelerator fund, housing will be further out of reach for many residents.”

Reid recommends the city request $15 million over a three-year period from 2024 to 2026. In that timeframe Reid says the city should introduce eight initiatives which would address actions identified in both the Affordable Action Housing Plan as well as the city’s 10-year Strategic Plan.

Housing really arrived on the radar of the city in early 2021 with the introduction of the Affordable Housing Action Plan which was ultimately adopted in October of 2022. The five-year plan runs from 2022-2027 and includes 39 actions intended to improve the local housing system.

The first of the eight initiatives Reid proposes for the CMHC Housing Accelerator Fund money is called the North End Secondary Plan and involves coordinating new projects around the new school slated for the area, and improving infrastructure.

The Housing Concierge Program is the second initiative. It will increase the supply of purpose-built rentals in the city by streamlining the process via the OneStop Development Shop and expediting the permitting process.

The third initiative entitled “Unlock Gentle Density” will support small-scale subdivisions and pre-approved schematic plans for semi-detached and townhouse submissions. The fourth looks to capitalize affordable housing, reducing fees for non-profits that are making these units, and improving coordination among organizations to get units built.

“There could be a considerable top up here, if we are successful,” Reid says of the Affordable Housing Grant fund.

Leveraging public lands is the fifth initiative and will consider municipal, provincial and federal lands for housing development as well as underutilized land like parking lots. Initiative six involves zoning by-law reform with the example of up-zoning along major corridors and in neighbourhoods as an example of potential reforms.

Implementation of new e-permitting software is the seventh initiative, again with the aim of streamlining permit reviews and approvals.

Governance reform is the eighth initiative which will look at governance reform options to best address the housing crisis.

“Our growth target on average to meet the program parameters what we’d be seeking is to target 425 new permitted units each year over the next three years,” Reid says, noting that if the target is met it would result in an over 50 percent increase in current baseline housing growth.

Mayor Donna Reardon asked that for the third initiative “Unlock Gentle Density” and that there be “some guidelines from the city as far how do we integrate gentle density into neighborhoods because we do see some resistance to that.” She asked for best practices and other facilitation efforts to be provided by staff.

“Maybe that would help offer a more predictable outcome for some of the applications as well as we go forward,” she says.

This follows the decision by council to investigate creating a municipal housing entity to look at lack of affordable housing in the city.

The CMHC defines affordable housing as that which a household can afford to rent or buy without spending more than 30 per cent of their before-tax income.

However even that definition has been challenged recently as housing costs soar in all parts of Canada, with financial analysts saying the rule is no longer realistic.

In May the benchmark price of a single-family home in the region was $278,000.

This comes after the release of the ten-year provincial housing strategy which will see Saint John and other municipalities benefit from the creation of a new rent bank, construction of 40 new public housing units in Saint John, and increased funding amounts for development of subsidized housing, and more skilled workers to build housing.

Alex Graham is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.