Greater Sudbury badly needs more housing, city councilors told

The city is applying for new funding through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as one way to address its dearth of affordable digs.

As outlined in a Housing Supply and Demand Analysis presented to city council on Tuesday, Sudbury is in urgent need of more rental units, particularly one-bedroom apartments, as well as a wider variety of dwelling options — townhouses, for instance, and semi- detached homes — to meet the needs and budgets of would-be buyers.

“We’ve seen housing prices trending upwards significantly in the past number of years,” said Melissa Riou, a senior planner with the City of Greater Sudbury. “Recently we’ve seen that new (homes) being built are mostly single-detached, and if supply continues to be limited, there will be continued upward pressure on prices.”

In terms of the rental market, the “newest and most expensive stock is the stock that has the tightest vacancy right now,” noted Riou. “There is an immediate need for more rental units, in the order of 470 units (right away) and then approximately 66 additional units each year thereafter, for the next 30 years, in order to meet anticipated demand.”

This would “help us meet a healthy vacancy rate of five per cent,” said the planner. “We’re currently sitting significantly lower than that.”

The analysis also found the supply of low-end-of-market and rent-geared-to-income units falls well short of demand.

“A broader supply and choice of units would help to stabilize rental rates, and the focus of efforts in a short time frame should be on multi-residential buildings and missing middle forms of housing,” said Riou.

‘Missing middle’ is a term used to describe the type of medium-density, pedestrian-friendly housing (such as rowhouses and duplexes) that were more common in the past.

The new Housing Accelerator Fund through CMHC is meant to help municipalities “remove barriers to housing supply” and “accelerate the growth of supply,” according to a report shared with council.

The focus is on supporting “complete communities” — where it is possible to access services and amenities by foot, bus or bicycle — and municipal objectives to spare the environment and foster “greater socio-economic inclusion, largely achieved through the equitable provision of housing across the entire housing spectrum.”

Municipalities must submit an application to CMHC by the end of this week, along with an action plan, in order to be eligible for the funding.

Kris Longston, director of planning services, said city staff has put together a set of action items the city will “be undertaking to facilitate the creation of housing in Greater Sudbury,” and will also be submitting the supply/demand analysis presented Tuesday as part of its application.

If successful, the money could go toward the city’s action plan items — which aim to increase the supply of housing, while adhering to the principles of the fund — and help with affordable housing projects, as well as infrastructure that supports housing.

“There are a number of uses we could put the funding toward,” said Longston. “That includes policy changes, processes like e-permitting. It includes infrastructure upgrades, like lift stations that could be built to facilitate the creation of additional housing.”

Targets need to be laid out in the application to “show the funding would be to the creation of more units, over and above what we were projecting,” he said. “So staff have done some analysis, looking at the action items we are proposing, and identifying the number of additional units that we project we could achieve.”

Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann wondered if the funds could support social housing and dovetail with a master plan developed for Greater Sudbury Housing.

“Through the accelerator fund there is an opportunity to use some of the funding, if we’re successful, on advancing some of Greater Sudbury Housing’s projects that are identified in the revitalization strategy,” said Longston. “So yes, those would be eligible projects, and depending on the funding the city receives, we’d return to you with an implementation plan after consulting with our colleagues in housing to present you with some options to consider.”

[email protected]