10,000 homes in 7 years is goal of Waterloo region collaboration between Habitat for Humanity, developers

A new initiative called Build Now: Waterloo Region aims to build 10,000 affordable and "attainable" homes in the community by 2030.

It was launched Thursday at Cambridge city hall by Habitat for Humanity Waterloo region in collaboration with local developers and community partners. It will see the groups work together to build 7,000 homes for purchase and 3,000 to rent.

None of the new homes will be available to be sold as investment properties and all will go to people who need a place to live, Habitat for Humanity CEO Philip Mills said.

"We're looking to build missing middle homes around four to six storeys in height," Mills said during the press conference Thursday.

Half-priced homes

As part of the project, homes will be build on undeveloped land earmarked for housing construction and development charges will be waived, which was in the province's Bill 23 legislation.

Home builders will also eliminate pricing mark-ups beyond that which allows them to build new housing at cost.

Mills says Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region's analysis shows these three factors account for about half of the price of a new home.

"These homes will be sold into the families at half price. That's the secret sauce of how we're going to make this work," Mills said, and he called the goal of "half-priced homes" realistic and achievable. 

"We would work with our amazing home builders and developers within this region to build homes at the lowest cost possible," He said.

"We would sell it [at] half price and all the rental units would be controlled by local not-for profits and community groups to ensure that not only is this a one time influx of 10,000 affordable units, but 10,000 affordable and attainable units in perpetuity in this community."

Development community 'said yes'

Scott Higgins is president of HIP Developments in Cambridge, which is a partner in the project. Higgins said initiatives like Build Now challenge the status quo and speaks to the innovative ideas that come out of Waterloo region. 

"Innovation happens with two things, trust and experimentation and that's a very difficult thing to do in the frameworks of municipal government," he said during the announcement.

"It's a bit like JFK [former U.S. president John. F. Kennedy] saying, 'We're going to the moon,' except we know how to build it and we already know how to get there. It's just a question of whether we have the collective will and the collective trust to be able to pursue that."

Higgins said this initiative started with conversations he had with other developers, recognizing that they were part of the unaffordability problem. 

Through those conversations, Higgins said they realized as developers, they could play a role in helping solve the problem.

"We know how to design housing, we know how to build housing. Governments don't have that knowledge and the not-for-profit don't have that knowledge, private sector has that knowledge," he said.

The question was, he said, could developers be convinced to work for free for a period of time and for a portion of their capacity to bring a balance back?

"That's a tough ask of private sector capitalism and I'll tell you, the development community stood up and said yes," he said.

Mills said next steps of the project will be to identify lands that could house the project and continue to grow the group.

"We're still working with a bunch of partners, private and public, to try and identify strategic land options so nothing has been settled or sorted yet," Mill said.