A goal to approve 8,000 new housing units for development by the end of next month has been met, while thousands of additional units could soon be approved by city council.
The City of Winnipeg approved 8,843 housing units between Dec. 5, 2023 and Oct. 4, 2024, surpassing Mayor Scott Gillingham’s target, a new report notes.
“One of the goals in setting the target of 8,000 units was to have every department see themselves as a housing department. So, our planning, property and development department are doing good work… to get units built,” said Gillingham. “This is about establishing a pipeline to get as many potential units lined up and approved.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
The City of Winnipeg approved 8,843 housing units between Dec. 5, 2023 and Oct. 4, 2024, surpassing Mayor Scott Gillingham’s target of 8,000.
More housing units should soon be added, as long as council approves proposals that are expected to create about 3,045 more housing units, the mayor’s office said.
Gillingham stressed his housing development target was just one step toward ramping up development for years to come.
He said there’s a great need for many forms of housing, including options that allow people to age-in-place in their communities.
On Wednesday, Gillingham cited the example of a 270-unit, 55-plus complex, which is being completed on Oakdale Drive, of which 44 per cent of the units will be affordable, as a step in the right direction.
“This is a prime example of an infill project that fits within our community… Projects like this really begin to meet the demand,” Gillingham said, during a Wednesday news conference.
About 44 per cent of that project’s units will also be affordable.
The mayor said Winnipeg’s $122-million share of the federal housing accelerator fund includes money to increase sewer capacity, which will help ensure infrastructure is in place to support new builds.
“There (are) intentional target investments,” he said.
Meanwhile, a new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report finds only a small portion of funds provided through past federal funding created truly affordable homes in Winnipeg.
The National Housing Strategy, which was launched in 2017, produced 2,145 units in Winnipeg but only 253 of them, or 12 per cent, meet Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. criteria for affordability, writes Shauna MacKinnon, the report’s author. Rents must be set at less than 30 per cent of a household’s gross income, also known as rent-geared-to-income, to meet that target.
“The really deeply affordable (housing), which is really what we’re really in most desperate need of, there’s very little of it being developed,” said MacKinnon, a University of Winnipeg urban and inner-city studies professor and member of the Right to Housing Coalition.
Her report recommends the city reallocate part of its housing accelerator fund to ensure 2,250 rent-geared-to-income housing units are created over the three-year strategy and seek provincial funding to support the effort.
“The province is the bigger player (but) the city should use their tools… As much of (that money) as possible should be going to housing for the lowest-income renters,” she said.
Gillingham said the city must meet “aggressive” housing targets and timelines set out in its housing accelerator fund agreement, which calls for 3,166 net new housing units, including 931 that are deemed affordable.
“If we deviated from that agreed-upon plan, it may cost us significant funds and I would not want to put that at risk,” he said.
However, the mayor stressed the targets are minimums and could be exceeded, noting the city recently awarded $25 million of grants from the fund, which is expected to create 1,135 new housing units, including 597 affordable ones.
Adding to the supply for several types of housing should also help lower home prices in general, said Gillingham.
“There is a big need for housing right now across all levels of housing… We know that creating additional inventory at all price levels, ultimately, opens up existing affordable units as people move their way up on the property ladder,” said Gillingham.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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