Chatham-Kent has received $440,000 from the province for beating its housing target for last year.
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Associate Housing Minister Rob Flack was in Chatham Friday to present the funding from the Building Faster Fund.
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Chatham-Kent broke ground on a total of 522 new housing units in 2023.
Announced last summer, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2-billion program to encourage municipalities to address Ontario’s housing supply crisis.
The fund rewards municipalities that make significant progress against their targets by providing funding for housing infrastructure, with a goal of 1.5 million new homes across the province by 2031.
Admitting it is an “ambitious goal,” Flack said Ontario’s growing population and strong economy continue to drive demand.
“Meeting our population growth, everyone deserves a roof over their head,” he said, adding the government has heard from many municipalities that this is a priority.
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Ensuring that available land is serviced with proper infrastructure is important to facilitating development, Flack said.
“We’ve got a lot of surplus land in this province,” he said.
Maple City Homes hosted Friday’s announcement at one of its new builds on Ironwood Trail in south Chatham, with municipal and economic development officials, home builders and real estate agents in attendance.
Mayor Darrin Canniff thanked the province, as well as others for investing and building in Chatham-Kent.
“Our target was 81 homes. But Chatham-Kent broke ground on an unprecedented 522 units in 2023,” he said. “We smashed our goal by 544 per cent. This is a sign of how fast we’re growing. We don’t plan to slow down anytime soon.”
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Canniff added the provincial funds will allow the community to continue to expand and remain welcoming, affordable and diverse.
“People want to be here in Chatham-Kent and housing is so critical,” he said. “Everyone stepped up to make this happen.”
It’s still to be determined exactly how the money will be spent, Canniff said, adding it will likely go toward building incentives.
Flack said Ontario simply needs more homes quickly and hopes interest rates “get back to some normalcy” to help the cause.
“Let’s be honest, that adds greatly to the cost of living,” he said. “High interest rates have been the big headwind, I would call it. … But every municipality can do their part.
“I think what you’ve got here (in Chatham-Kent) is pretty unique. Obviously, there’s a demand. People can work from here and live from here in a more affordable way, than say, a big city like Toronto.”
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The province will continue to announce Building Faster Fund money in the coming weeks for municipalities that met, exceeded, or achieved 80 per cent of their assigned housing targets in 2023.
“We know communities across Ontario are experiencing challenges with their housing supply,” Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Trevor Jones said. “Our government is taking full, decisive action to build more housing faster. To improve the quality of life for everyone.”
He said Chatham-Kent “hit it out of the park” with respect to its housing targets, noting that local builders have constructed a wide range of homes for families and individuals.
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