A delay in the construction of new affordable housing development in Sarnia will not have a negative impact on the local tax base after the county received federal funding.
Construction of a new three-storey expansion at Maxwell Park Place was held up due to site service issues identified earlier this year. The construction of modules was also delayed.
Housing Services Manager Melisa Johnson said the occupancy date for the project was pushed back to March 2023.
"Work on site is continuing and the form work should be starting either later this week or next week with the foundation work completed, hopefully by the end of October," said Johnson.
Due to various factors, the project's cost is about $500,000 more than initially expected. The original budget was $6.1 million and the current estimate is now $6.6 million.
"We did recently learn that we were successful in receiving an additional $1.8 million from the National Housing Strategy Co-Investment Fund so in terms of the impact to the local tax base, there will be no impact, it'll actually be a beneficial result."
The funding received means the county won't need to draw as much as anticipated from the Affordable Housing Reserve. Staff recommended that council redistribute the approved funding for Maxwell Park Place to allow for future housing developments.
The National Housing Strategy Funding report was accepted during a council meeting on October 5.
The federal government launched a 10 year National Housing Strategy in 2017, with a goal of housing 530,000 families and cutting chronic homelessness by 50 per cent.
As outlined in the county's Housing and Homelessness Plan, the goal is to build 75 more affordable housing units (with help from government funding) by 2024.
