New provincial funding has been awarded to Chatham-Kent for more than tripling its home-building targets in 2024.
The Ontario government has provided the municipality $440,000 through the second round of the province’s Building Faster Fund, after Chatham-Kent broke ground on 311 new homes last year.
With a provincial target of 92 homes, CK exceeded its goal by more than 300 per cent.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said the targets for each municipality are based on an average of completed housing projects over the past several years.
“Certainly, I’d love to see more money given that we’ve significantly exceeded our targets, but I get it that it’s based on historic numbers,” he said. “We’re confident, as we move forward, there’s going to be lots of things drawing people here. I know it’s been a little slower than what the builders want, but I know that our permits have picked up.”
Ryan Jacques, CK’s director of planning services, said the new funding will support an affordable housing project that will see a six-unit row house constructed on Eugenie Street and a five-unit row house on Redwood Crescent in Chatham.
“These funds go a long way to offset the capital costs for this project,” said Jacques.
In addition to the $440,000 through the Building Faster Fund, Chatham-Kent has already secured $1.1 million from the federal government and another $480,000 from the provincial government that will go towards the affordable housing project.
The Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2 billion program that is designed to encourage municipalities to speed up approval processes and get more homes built faster. The program rewards municipalities that achieve at least 80 per cent of their provincially designated housing targets.