The City of New Westminster is the latest municipal government in Metro Vancouver to receive grant funding from the Government of Canada’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
Earlier in August 2024, the jurisdiction received $11.43 million in funding from the federal government through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
This funding is expected to enable the municipal government to catalyze and expedite over 2,300 new homes by 2027.
According to the City, most of these new homes will be located near SkyTrain stations, and close to 200 homes will be infill units. Moreover, 90% of these new homes will be affordable units.
In exchange for receiving the Housing Accelerator Fund and to realize the new housing supply, the municipal government will accelerate its development approval process, complete the densification master plan for the 22nd Street Station transit-oriented development area, speed up infill housing and townhouse projects, amend the Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoning bylaw to permit affordable housing as-of-right in residential zones for non-profit organizations, update the inclusionary housing policy to support the creation of affordable rental homes, and increase the required minimum number of family-friendly units (defined as units with at least two bedrooms) for new projects.
“The City of New Westminster is committed to ensuring we have available housing to meet the diverse needs of our community,” said New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone in a statement.
“That means filling the gaps in the housing supply as quickly as possible, and ensuring our processes and policies are updated to facilitate that goal. We thank the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation for their recognition of our efforts and providing this significant contribution to help us meet our strategic priority outcomes.”
Under the Housing Accelerator Fund, municipal governments can fulfill the requirements by streamlining development policies, updating community plans, reforming zoning and bylaws, and changing policies that help catalyze more housing (including affordable housing, rental housing, and transit-oriented development).
These strategies will expedite housing, with the federal government setting a goal of expediting at least 100,000 permitted new homes over the first three years of the Housing Accelerator Fund, and almost 550,000 permitted new homes over 10 years.
CMHC began accepting applications for the Housing Accelerator Fund’s $4 billion pool of funding in July 2023. However, by early 2024, when some municipal governments in Metro Vancouver had their applications rejected, CMHC told Daily Hive Urbanized that the fund was depleted, with 179 agreements already in place with municipal and provincial governments at the time.
Metro Vancouver jurisdictions that have seen their applications denied in the first round of the fund include the Township of Langley, City of Langley, City of Maple Ridge, City of Port Coquitlam, City of White Rock, and City of Delta.
Weeks later, the 2024 federal budget allocated an additional $400 million to the fund to enable a second round intake. Currently, only those applicants who were previously rejected will be eligible to apply for this second, smaller round of the Housing Accelerator Fund, which runs from July 15 to September 13, 2024.
There are two streams for the Housing Accelerator Fund program — “large/urban” and “small/rural/north/Indigenous.” According to the fund’s guidelines, applicants for “large/urban” must be jurisdictions with a population of 10,000 residents or more.
The funding methodology calculation takes into the three considerations of base funding ($20,000 per residential unit catalyzed by HAF), top-up funding (incentivizing certain types of housing supply, with $15,000 per multi-family unit near rapid transit, $12,000 per multi-family unit for the middle class, and $7,000 per other multi-family unit), and an affordable housing bonus ($19,000 per unit). Single-family homes are not eligible for top-up funding.
“Through innovation and collaboration with local governments, we can build the housing we need in our cities and create inclusive and diverse communities,” said Terry Beech, federal Minister of Citizens’ Service, on behalf of Sean Fraser, federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.
“Teaming up with New Westminster through the Housing Accelerator Fund exemplifies this approach. Partnership is the new leadership, and we will continue to work to make life affordable and build strong communities in British Columbia and across Canada.”
The combined Housing Accelerator Fund allocation to Metro Vancouver municipalities to date now stands at about $325 million, including $115 million to the City of Vancouver, $96 million to the City of Surrey, $43 million to the City of Burnaby, $36 million to the City of Richmond, and $25 million to the City of Coquitlam. Provincially, to date, the total has reached over $420 million or roughly 10% of the combined $4.4 billion available nationwide across the first and second rounds of funding.