City Unveils Affordable Housing Action Plan Project

Affordable housing has become a major challenge for many communities, and the City of Saint John wants to do something about it.

City staff have teamed up with a wide range of partners in the city and beyond to launch an affordable housing action plan project.

The project, unveiled Tuesday, is designed to identify and address supply and affordability gaps in the city’s housing continuum.

“Our starting point is when we all acknowledge that we have a major challenge,” Phil Ouellette, the city’s director of planning, growth and community services, told growth committee members.

“People in our community are having considerable challenges accessing affordable housing which, in turn, is causing a variety of spinoff consequences for us.”

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), affordable housing is defined as housing that a single person or household can afford to rent or purchase without spending more than 30 per cent of their before-tax income.

This project comes as New Brunswick recorded the largest year-over-year rent increase in the country amid the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.

While COVID-19 had made life more challenging for everyone, Ouellette said, the most marginalized and vulnerable community members have felt the greatest impact.

“It is for that reason that there is no better time to embark on this affordable housing initiative,” he said.

But, as Ouellette pointed out, the challenge of affordable housing is not something that any one developer, landlord, organization or level of government can solve by themselves.

This project involves several affordable housing partners, including the Saint John Land Bank, Saint John Community Loan Fund, Saint John Non-Profit Housing, Human Development Council, Housing Alternatives, and Envision Saint John.

“I’m really excited about the positive impact that the affordable housing action plan can have on the affordable housing sector and I look forward to participating on the committee,” said Narinder Singh, executive director of Saint John Non-Profit Housing.

Dominic Aube, a housing specialist with CMHC, said working together is key to removing people from core housing need and creating more affordable housing options.

The project is expected to focus on specific sections of the housing continuum, including transitional and supportive housing, non-market rental housing and low-income rental housing, according to project manager Mark O’Hearn.

A housing needs assessment will be conducted over the coming months, which O’Hearn said will involve workshops with more than three dozen stakeholders and a public survey.

The information from the needs assessment will be compiled into an action plan which is due to be released in May 2022.