Thunder Bay city council to consider new housing grants as push for home building continues

Those looking to construct new housing units in Thunder Bay could soon have support from the city.

City administration is recommending council approve a number of housing initiatives at Monday's meeting, among which is the adoption of the Housing Community Improvement Plan, which would "guide the allocation" $2.23 million in Housing Accelerator Funding the city has received from the federal government.

"This is going to be broken down in the housing accelerator fund into two primary streams," said Darrik Smith, the city's housing accelerator coordinator.

"You're either going to be wanting to build a multi-unit residential building or you're going to want to be building an additional dwelling unit."

The additional dwelling units could be built inside or attached to an existing home, or in the backyard, Smith said.

The report to council states that if approved, the multi-residential unit grant would provide up to $300,000 per property, and has the potential to fund about 80 units.

The additional unit grant, meanwhile, would fund up to $20,000 per unit, with the potential to fund about 187 units.

Administration is also recommending council approve grants to help cover the costs of planning and building fees, and upgrading municipal services to new housing units.

Smith said if approved, applications for the grants will open in September.

"We know that the [Mayor's Taskforce on Building More Homes Advisory Committee] has had a great response from the construction industry, and also on the demand side, people are gaining optimism from it," Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff said. "The municipality, our planning department and the task force are putting more on the table, making it easier to people to to get part of the program.

And as the uptake has been great, we want to ensure that that momentum keeps on going."