Ottawa’s City Council today approved a long-range financial plan that promises funding to support the objectives of the City’s 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan.
The financial plan commits $198.4 million over the next 10 years to fully fund the City’s share of between 5,700 to 8,500 new affordable housing options and to ensure Housing Services has the funding it needs to deliver its programs and services. Housing Services will focus on maintaining service levels and supporting select strategic growth, working on approved strategies to address funding gaps, including advocating for enhanced support from the provincial and federal governments.
Council also approved a two-year work plan for the 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan that outlines 42 actions the City will take to create and preserve affordable housing, increase housing affordability, expand homelessness programs, integrate services and better meet the needs of the Indigenous community and equity groups. This plan puts the City on track to deliver 694 new affordable housing units before the end of 2022.
Council approved the purchase of 1010 Somerset Street from the Government of Canada for $11 million, subject to final Treasury Board approval. The City and Ottawa Community Housing will work together to build about 1,160 residential units at Gladstone Village, which includes this property and one immediately south at 933 Gladstone Avenue.
Most of the purchase price would be funded through an agreement with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, leaving the City to cover $2.85 million. Conditions of sale include developing an agreement with the Algonquins of Ontario to explore potential for future uses and dedicating about 25 per cent of the site as a new City park.
The property at 1010 Somerset falls within the area where Council today approved a new secondary plan . The plan will help guide future development near Corso Italia Station, which is scheduled to open along O-Train Line 2 at Gladstone Avenue in 2022. Much of the nearby land is vacant or underused, and the station will offer significant opportunities for new transit-oriented development that also supports the City’s intensification goals.
The policies in the secondary plan will encourage development that reduces dependence on cars, concentrating density along the O-Train and introducing appropriate transitions to existing low-rise areas. The plan will ensure new development builds on the area’s heritage and character and enhances the public realm.
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