City hosts productive “It Takes a Village” working session with community partners

BRANTFORD, ON – As the social services provider for both the City of Brantford and the County of Brant, on National Housing Day yesterday November 23, 2022, the City’s Housing and Homelessness staff hosted a working session with community stakeholders to provide updates on shared objectives, acknowledge progress to date and the ongoing acute needs for more affordable housing options in our community. Given that addressing the current housing crisis requires a cross sector, multi-agency collaborative approach, the theme of the event was “It takes a village” and featured panelists from other levels of government, the not-for-profit sector and the private sector.

It takes a village

Working with non-profit and co-operative housing corporations is vital to addressing the significant need for supportive and affordable housing in Brantford and the County of Brant. Given the fiscal constraints and expenses for housing development, a greater alignment with non-profits and cooperatives is necessary to ensure the affordable housing need is met, and that the responsibility is shared in the community and among all housing providers. The Brantford-Brant Housing Stability Plan has set a target of 337 rental units to be developed, owned and operated by non-profit/coop housing providers by 2030.

Facilitating growth and expansion of the private market rental stock is also vital to provide more options for households and in turn alleviate pressure on housing stock that is intended to provide greater affordability.

2022 Achievements

The City currently owns and operates 1,132 housing units, 13 of which are multi-residential buildings, 9 townhouses/row-house sites and 60 detached/semi-detached homes. Expanding and expediting our community’s supply of affordable housing is absolutely critical to offsetting current higher rent costs and decreasing the number of individuals experiencing homelessness. To date, a total of 179 new affordable housing units are currently either completed, or at various stages of development. Additional achievements:

Successfully completed all three phases of implementation of a homelessness coordinated access system – a significant achievement as Brantford-Brant is the 14^th community in Canada to be confirmed by Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH)
832 new applications received to date in 2022
100 households housed from the waitlist in 2022
25 new COHB (Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit) participants registered
9 households to received funding from Ontario Renovates to renovate their home

Municipal Housing Developments

30 units at 5 Marlene Ave. (completed 2020)
4 units at 18 Stirton Ave. (completed 2021)
26 units at 177 Colborne St. W. (est. Dec/22)
28/56 units at Lucy Marco Place (est. June/23)
49 units at 170 Trillium Way, Paris (est. Dec/23)
70+ units at 345 Shellard Lane (est. Dec/24)

Acute need for more affordable housing

With approximately 1,450 households still on the affordable housing waitlist, the acute need for more affordable housing in our community has never been more urgent.

The City’s approved Municipal Housing Master Plan and Affordable Housing Action Plan requires $100-105M in funding to achieve the City’s commitment to build over 506 new municipal affordable housing units in our community by 2030. After grants, and other contributions, it is estimated that $45-55M of municipal funding is required from both the City of Brantford and the County of Brant to meet this goal.

City hosts productive “It Takes a Village” working session with community partners

It takes a village

2022 Achievements

Municipal Housing Developments

Acute need for more affordable housing

Related Links