‘No market for 2,000 sq. foot homes’: Regina’s daunting housing needs presented to new councillors

City Hall in Regina can be seen in this file photo. (David Prisciak/CTV News)

Regina needs more homes to house its growing population, nearly 57,000 in 25 years to be exact, according to a new report.

A recent report by a third party on behalf of city administration surveyed both the city’s current and future market demands.

“There’s just not a market for 2,000 square foot homes row after row that we have seen in generations past,” senior city planner Michael Sliva told councillors Wednesday. “The cost is too elevated compared to what people’s incomes are.”

A “housing needs assessment” authored by city planning consultant ground Watson and Associates dove into what type of homes Regina needs to best fulfill its skyrocketing population.

The report was done to “highlight the existing deficiencies within Regina’s housing market and future needs to meet both current and existing demand,” according to the meeting’s agenda.

“Regina is projected to experience significant housing growth in both the short-and long-term.,” the report reads. “The 56,850 new housing units needed will require significant infrastructure investment.”

The assessment also found Regina must equalize its housing options between high-, medium-, and low-density.

“Eighteen per cent of [Regina’s] population is new Canadians,” said Ward 3 Coun. David Froh. “Virtually all the population growth in Regina is coming from immigration. Do we know how the population growth of new Canadians will impact our housing needs?”

“[Newcomer’s] housing needs are perhaps somewhat different than the base population in Regina,” Watson and Associates manager Erik Karvinen answered. “Many of them are looking for smaller housing units.”

“But then there’s also a need for larger units, driven by families. There’s also a growing trend towards more multi-generational living, which culturally is more appropriate.”

Housing accelerator fund

The housing needs assessment was completed as part of requirements set by the federal government for Regina to fulfill its agreement to access grants through the housing accelerator fund (HAF).

However, a looming federal election raised concerns amongst some councillors that cash may not be available much longer.

“This program may disappear,” Ward 10 Coun. Clark Bezo said. “What does that do for the entire project that the city has put together? And will the city be expected to 100 per cent fund this, or will this be somewhat clawed back?”

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced in October of last year her would scrap the HAF if elected.

Regina was granted $35.275 million as part of their agreement with Ottawa.

“Even in the change of a federal government, we would still anticipate bringing forward a housing strategy,” Sliva responded. “How it may look could be impacted. But, we know that we need to have that conversation about housing, and we know that we need to update our existing policy.”

Council must approve a final report to submit to the federal government before the end of March.

Other incentives

Also before councillors Wednesday, multiple incentive pilot projects aimed at increasing density in brownfield areas were presented.

City administration says the rental acquisition, repair and the pre-development grants, as well as Office to residential incentive pilot projects fulfill further initiatives within the HAF.

The rental acquisition grant would provide $2 million in available incentives covering 50 per cent of eligible costs and tax exemptions on affordable units created or repaired.

While the pre-development grants rewards developers for increasing affordable housing supply.

Administration also brought forward a plan to transition former office spaces in the downtown into residential units.

“Converting downtown office space into residential housing units can increase housing supply and revitalize downtowns,” City Manager Niki Anderson said, referencing a cited report. “Investing in office space conversions has several benefits including increasing [further] downtown residential development.”

Anderson outlined $4 million in investment to convert the spaces.

“This is actually going to be part of the work when we look at doing our housing strategy,” said city manager of housing Bill Neher. “And we’ll be looking at all areas of the city.”

“Why haven’t we had many buildings going up downtown?” asked Ward 1 coun. Dan Rashovich.

“Demand can be a complicated factor,” Sliva said. “[I] had similar conversations with the city of Saskatoon 10 years ago. They had one successful condo project go forward at River Landing at the southern edge of downtown.”

“Now they’re in a building boom. It took one project to kind of prove the market. So I think that we would anticipate something similar here,” he added.