'A renaissance of home building': Winnipeg gets millions for housing, falls short of ask

Winnipeg has secured tens of millions of dollars of federal housing money including funds for affordable units.

Federal Liberal MPs were on hand for an announcement at Winnipeg City Hall including St. Boniface’s Dan Vandal.

"It's about governments coming together to make sure homes get built faster," said Vandal.

The city's share of the national pot is $122 million, to fast-track 3,100 new housing units over three years, with more than 900 of them being affordable housing.

This is all in an effort to tackle the housing crunch and homelessness crisis. Mayor Scott Gillingham said the money is important to ensure Winnipeg remains a liveable city.

“We're going to use these investments to try to spark a renaissance of home building across this city, and especially building of affordable home units throughout Winnipeg," said Gillingham.

But the amount is $70 million short of the $192 million the city applied for from the fund.

"This is consistent with what we've seen other cities of our size get, in fact, it's a little bit more."

The cash also comes with controversy. In order to speed up the building process and qualify for the funding, city council had to change existing zoning rules. Coun. Brian Mayes voted against the changes.

"It was a good PR campaign by those who wanted to get those through council and claim we're jeopardizing $192 (million)," said Mayes.

The construction of four units on a single lot, and up to four storeys within 800 metres of frequent transit corridors, is allowed without a public hearing or zoning application.

"The provisions are bold, such as legalizing four units as a right," said Vandal.

That has some residents worried they will no longer have a say on what is built on their streets. A bylaw spelling out parameters around lot sizes is yet to come.

“What's it going to be 50 wide, 25 wide?" asked Mayes “All of that is going to have to be hammered out over the next year and there'll be a lot of infighting over that."

Part of the announcement to speed up building will also see the city create a land enhancement office to assist the development of affordable and low-income housing on city land. A service will be established to coordinate affordable housing requests and approvals for non-profit, Indigenous, and downtown developers. There will also be efforts to fast-track permit approvals including improving the digital process.