CANMORE – An initial funding of $250,000 will be made by the Town of Canmore to partner with an organization to help find funding options for affordable housing.
Canmore council approved the quarter-million spend at its Aug. 20 meeting, with the money going to work with Partners for Affordable Housing – an organization that aims to find funding and partnerships to establish non-market homes.
"It is right up our current MO of looking at new ways of getting housing built,” said Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert. “We are in a housing crisis and we’re taking many bold initiatives on a variety of fronts. … This is another one. In the big picture, [it’s] an investment that couldn’t even build us one unit. We hope that we will build many.”
Council also directed Town staff to find five housing projects in Canmore for a joint application with Partners for Affordable Housing to apply to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Capital Connect project.
The CMHC Capital Connect is an online platform meant to centralize affordable housing projects and investors in one space.
Coun. Jeff Mah said the partnership could be a “potential for magnitudes of order of potential funding and that’s really what we need right now because we do have limited funding models.”
Partners for Affordable Housing has a mandate to find funding to create housing, have innovative ideas, increase awareness, provide expertise and share risk. It has a goal of raising $1.1 billion by 2034 to help 27,300 non-market housing units be built.
The group previously worked with Rocky View Foundation’s Abrio Place in Airdrie for 12 months. The project had $13.8 million in costs, with $4 million in public sector grants and $661,775 in philanthropic donations received to reduce debt load.
The $250,000 will come from the Town’s general municipal operating reserve and it will match the $250,000 committed by the provincial government.
Coun. Joanna McCallum said the money would likely only cover the cost of half a residential unit, but could unlock funding to help establish housing.
“We need to diversify all of our approaches in terms of trying to bring on more attainable non-market affordable – whatever you want to call it – housing to be able to house our workforce and our citizens. … I think this is a good investment of exploration,” she said.
The five projects selected are intended to be finished in the next 12-18 months.
A staff report highlighted the agreement would “guarantee regular updates, transparent reporting, clear performance metrics, contingency planning and dedicated fundraising support.”
A report submitted by Partners for Affordable Housing stated it would have a person for fundraising, along with support from a larger team with the organization, look to find partners, philanthropic donors and grants to aid in building of affordable housing.
It would also have digital storytelling campaigns to “advocate for and attract funding” specific to Canmore and launch focus groups with housing providers.
The staff report indicated the key questions to the organization were understanding the application workload, how Canmore’s housing needs may be seen by possible funders compared to other municipalities and the risks in the financial contribution.
“While we are all fully aware of the housing crisis in Canmore, because our need is for non-market housing and less so for social or other supportive housing, we are concerned that it may be difficult to market the needs in Canmore while also funding for needs in communities with more numerous social and supportive housing needs,” stated the report.
At council’s July meeting, the organization requested $250,000 from the Town to partner with one another, in addition to the private sector, public sector, community housing providers and philanthropic donors – also known as P4 – to assist with long-term costs associated with housing.
The new group would work as an aggregator of the P4 groups, to financially help non-market housing projects.
The initial $250,000 grant would allow the organization to work on up to five below-market community housing projects, create an advisory council for those projects, establish an awareness campaign, look for possible donors and work with other levels of government to find funding.
The group has previously said they’ve had talks with Airdrie, Calgary and Edmonton as well as the Alberta government. They have said they prioritize work with municipalities who received the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
Canmore’s Housing Accelerator Fund application was rejected, but the organization has said they were familiar with ongoing projects that have an affordable housing component.
According to its website, the organization has two people listed from Canmore – Charlene Butler and former deputy minister Marcia Nelson – as part of its advisory council.
“This is an investment for the future of our town and how we fund many of the projects got lined up for the next five years,” said Coun. Wade Graham.
