Winnipeg, MB – The City of Winnipeg has met the requirements of its Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) agreement through the first year of the program, and has now received the scheduled payment of $30.6 million from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
The funding will be used by the City to deliver on its eight Action Plan Initiatives aimed at speeding up the rate of development and increasing the number of affordable housing units available in Winnipeg.
This installment is the second of four scheduled payments that make up the City’s $122.4 million HAF agreement with CMHC.
Per the agreement, the City is required to help create 14,101 total housing units by 2027, including at least 931 affordable housing units. The City's building permit target for the first year of the program was 3,733, which was exceeded. In the first year, there were 4,307 permitted housing units.
“Exceeding our housing targets in the first year shows we’re delivering on our commitment to address Winnipeg’s housing crisis,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. “This second round of funding confirms our progress, and the early public release of our annual report to CMHC — nearly a year ahead of deadline — underscores our transparency and accountability.”
“There is a lot of momentum being built – quite literally – in response to the housing crisis here in Winnipeg,” said Sherri Rollins, Chairperson of the Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development. “Receiving this installment will allow that response to grow as we use these funds to support local development efforts. I know that City staff have been working tirelessly to meet the targets of our ambitious program initiatives, and I applaud them for achieving those targets to date.”
A condition of this installment was a submission to CMHC by the City on all program activities to date. That submission listed the milestones the City had set for each of the eight Action Plan Initiatives with progress updates. The information included in the City’s submission is now publicly available at winnipeg.ca/HAF.