Will Ottawa's affordable housing money work for Saskatoon? Experts are cautiously optimistic

Farrah Ledoux says housing has become a privilege, not a right, in Saskatoon. The mother of three has been looking for a place to live since March and is priced out of the market.

Saskatoon city council has approved zoning amendments needed to qualify for $41.3 million from Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). The changes will allow fourplexes in residential areas across the city and four-storey developments along transit corridors. Experts and community groups say the plan can help families like Ledoux.

With disability and child welfare benefits, Ledoux receives slightly less than $1,600 a month.

"Everything goes to rent, and my mom would help lots with groceries just so my kids can eat," she said, noting her previous two apartments were infested with cockroaches, but she had no choice but to stay.

"Every single month it was always [a question] whether I short the rent $100 so I could buy food for my daughter. If I didn't eat that was fine, but as long as my daughter had something to eat."

Ledoux is now put up at her mother's one-bedroom place and her kids are living separately. Her everyday routine is to get up at 7 a.m. and start applying for rentals, but it has all been in vain.

"The rent is just outrageous. It's hard to find anything under what I can afford, and I even do apply for things that I can't afford thinking I'll be able to manage it somehow, at least I'll have a place," she said.

"But I can't even find anything. There are no places."

Ledoux said she is hopeful that HAF will lead to more affordable solutions.

"There just needs to be more housing and affordable housing, because I know quite a few people who, just because of housing, are separated from their families."

Extreme lack of affordable housing 

Kristen Thoms, executive director with Quint Development Corporation, said affordable housing is a critical issue in Saskatoon, with a low vacancy rate often putting people in precarious positions.

"We had 1,163 applications for housing last year. We only had 18 available units throughout the whole year to fill. So there is quite a disconnect in terms of the need versus the supply," she said.

She said current demand is "on pace like last year, but the availability is almost lower," with a zero to one per cent vacancy.

Thoms said the HAF will allow Quint to expand its housing portfolio, specifically within the core neighbourhoods.

"There is an extreme lack of affordable housing in the city across the board for every demographic," she said.

"Across the housing continuum, people are struggling, and it impacts the most vulnerable first."

Inventory available for only 1.5 months

Chris Guérette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, said her organization looks at supply in terms of how many months it would take to completely disappear if there was no new inventory being freed up.

"There is 1.5 months of supply [in Saskatoon], which means we only have inventory available for 1.5 months until we have nothing left to sell or to purchase," she said. "That's one of the lowest in the province right now. It's not comfortable."

Council passed the new rules at an extremely contentious meeting. Guérette said many people didn't like the notion of the federal government forcing municipalities to implement housing initiatives.

"But it speaks volumes to me that we were not able to get there on our own, that our hand had to be forced."

Is it economical? Yes if the red tape is removed

Guérette said the province needs to issue 10,000 to 12,000 building permits a year — mostly in Regina and Saskatoon — to restore affordability, but it's presently only doing about 4,000.

She said the HAF will only produce 300 new units a year for Saskatoon, still not enough to meet the growing population.

Guérette referenced a 2017 change meant to encourage laneway or garden and garage suites in the city. She said only 17 of them were actually built, due to a list of development standards and requirements. She said the city should be flexible with the HAF-related rules if they don't gain traction quickly.

As part of the affordable housing incentives, the city is offering up to $27,000 in grants per unit. The city said it had received 25 applications for this money representing approximately 609 affordable units by its first deadline of July 5. They will now be reviewed and evaluated against the required criteria.

"As there is limited funding for this affordable housing unit stream, it's not certain yet whether all units proposed within these applications will be funded," the city said in a statement.

Myles Parkinson, president of Vox Development, said the HAF can work if other subsidies are provided to builders to help with rising costs of land, labour and construction.

Parkinson said Vox has applied for the $27,000 grants on 56 new units it wants to build near the University of Saskatchewan, but that current rules requiring minimum amounts of parking would limit it to only 29 units.

"In order for us to get that, the city needs to remove a lot of other red tape," he said. "Parking restrictions, that's the biggest hurdle."

City administration is slated to present a proposed bylaw amendment that would remove minimum off-street parking requirements for new developments at a public hearing later this month.

Parkinson said many people staying in affordable housing units do not own vehicles and rely on public transportation or alternative modes of convenience.

"At the end of the day, we are running a business. We want to help out everybody else, but we can't build something where the numbers don't pencil out."

Can the changes be undone?

The city said all the HAF-related bylaw amendments still require ministerial approval before they take effect, which is expected within two to three months.

The new rules could be reversed by a future city council, but administration said that would have major negative implications on the HAF funding.

"This may include a requirement for the City to pay back funds already received and spent," the city said. "It could jeopardize the city's eligibility for future federal infrastructure and transit funding."