By Clint Fleury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: TBnewswatch.com
The city hit 86 percent of its target for housing starts and is receiving its third year of Housing Accelerator Fund money.
The federal government recognizes the efforts the city is making to build homes by giving the third advance of $5.88 million for the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), says city manager John Collin.
“They are extremely pleased with the progress that has happened in Thunder Bay in terms of the HAF initiatives, and I would suggest that at 86 per cent of the targets at the end of year two, we are certainly in the top grouping of municipalities that are that are part of HAF,” he said.
City staff provided the growth standing committee with its second annual report on HAF funding Tuesday evening.
Kerri Marshall, commissioner of growth, said the city issued permits for 546 new units in 2025, achieving 86 per cent of the combined first and second year housing supply growth targets.
“However, there is still much more to do. The need for housing remains high, and achieving the housing supply growth target will require sustained focus and effort,” she said.
Project manager Summer Stevenson said the city has an ambitious goal of 880 more net-new units by the end of February 2027.
A significant fraction of new permits were issued very recently, more than the city expected. In early February, Stevenson told Newswatch the city was at 68 per cent of the permit target and expected to reach 75 per cent by the reporting deadline.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal said she was concerned by a lack of affordable housing.
“Affordable housing is at 37 per cent of the strategic number. How are we going to increase that number? Because that is one of our largest demands that we have right now in our society is truly affordable housing,” she said.
According to the report, between March 1, 2024 and Feb. 28, 2026, the city had a target of 362 affordable net permitted units; however, they permitted 135 net-new units — less than halfway to the goal.
“Affordable housing is necessary, and it is very challenging to develop in our current climate with high construction costs here in Thunder Bay. Recognizing this challenge, we are creating a housing affordability action plan that will look at the tools the city of Thunder Bay can use to support affordable housing construction, specifically in the non-market sector,” Stevenson said.
So, there are limited non-market housing opportunities that are currently taking place. There’s a lot of opportunity, though, to develop capacity in this sector to increase the number of affordable units throughout the city.”
In November, the city rejected three bids from a non-profit developer looking to build affordable and transitional units, moving forward with three higher-density projects. City officials declined to comment on the rejected bids but in a separate interview earlier that month did say that big multi-residential units were needed to secure the last instalment of HAF funding.
Stevenson told the committee a housing affordability action plan will be presented in the next couple of months.
Agarwal followed up by asking how the dilapidated building program and the HAF program could work together to create housing initiatives.
Stevenson said at the moment, two vacant buildings have received HAF support for re-develvelopment.
“One of the goals is that any of the buildings that can be repurposed, that we explore how that can be done to support affordable housing. So that is on our radar for both the housing affordability action plan and the vacant and dilapidated buildings program planning,” she said.
With the number of homes being constructed through the HAF program, Coun. Dominic Pasqualino asked if city staff have seen a dent in lowering the rental vacancy rate.
Stevenson said the city is still at a 3 per cent vacancy rate.
“We have seen that rents are continuing to go up. However, the period of 2024 to 2025 did see a lower increase in rents than the year prior to that. So, we will continue to monitor these metrics to see how the increase of supply is impacting the overall picture,” she said.
