A day of recognition is shining a light on housing needs in the city.
The City of Timmins proclaimed today as National Housing Day, which is the first time that it has been done locally.
“It’s important to acknowledge the hard work that’s being done to preserve our existing housing stock as well as to create creative approaches to the creation of new and affordable stock as well,” said Lindsay Cumming, Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board (CDSSAB) director of housing services.
Housing has been identified as a priority for both the city and the CDSSAB.
“Today is all about recognizing the innovative strategies and innovative ways we’re working to try to provide housing to as many people as possible,” said Boileau, who also serves as the CDSSAB chair.
The CDSSAB maintains 2,428 housing units across the district, including the Pine Street North building in Timmins where the housing day event was held.
“We’re looking at putting up some of the upfront cost for conceptuals and costing so that when the province or the federal government releases funding, we’re ready,” said Cumming. “We have in the ground shovel ready projects which tend to have a higher approval rate for funding.”
The goal for the coming year is to access funding through recently announced programs from the provincial and federal governments. In August, the provincial government announced the building faster fund, a three-year, $1.2 billion program. Ten per cent of that funding is allocated for rural and northern development.
Boileau said there will be a report on housing development in the city at the next council meeting, which is on Nov.28.
“Housing is one of council’s priorities this term,” she said. “With rising costs, costs of construction, it’s difficult to put shovels in the ground right now, but we’ve made a lot of headway in terms of planning and identifying the current need.”
CDSSAB has not provided information on how long the wait lists for housing in the district are, but the need is clear, said Cumming.
In 2024, the goal is to get shovels in the ground.
“We will continue to lobby all levels of government to secure new funding to work toward our goal of increasing housing stock,” said Cumming. “Success looks like shovels in the ground and the creation of a number of units, what that number is, I don’t have an answer to that right now.”
Boileau points to the potential and need to increase the city’s building capacity.
“On average, we see 23 new housing starts in the City of Timmins in the past few years. Some years it's more, some years it’s less, “said Boileau. “When we’re talking about 23, it’d be nice to be talking about 100 over the next three years because that’s what’s needed.”
The speed of housing creation is also an important factor to consider, said Boileau.
“It’s never going to be fast enough, but we’re working within the framework that we have at our disposal,” she said. “We’re working at the speed the provincial and federal housing programs and strategies allow us to.”
National Housing Day is meant to recognize the work that has been done in providing housing to those most in need of that support, as well as to acknowledge what else needs to happen to provide safe homes for more people.
“Indigenous worldviews perceive home as being a circle of interconnectedness, so it’s also about the relationships of the people that you have around you, ” said Boileau. “It’s more than just the four walls over your head.”
