The City of Windsor has issued a Request for Proposals for the affordable housing funding program.

The 2019 Rental Housing Component of the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiatives (OPHI), which is open to eligible proponents, is looking to create new affordable housing in Windsor and Essex County.

The city has a list of 5,000 people waiting for affordable housing units.

OPHI provides flexible funding to address local priorities in housing supply and affordability, including construction of new affordable rental housing, community housing repair, rental assistance, tenant supports and affordable homeownership.

Eligible proponents include partnerships between private sector companies and a supportive agency in the form of non-profit and charitable organizations; non-profit housing providers; co-operative housing providers; social support agencies; and service clubs or organizations.

Anyone who is eligible is invited to apply for this limited funding opportunity, which is provided by the federal and provincial governments.

The OPHI program may fund up to 75 per cent of the total pro-rated share of capital costs of the affordable units on a 20-year forgivable loan basis.

The 2019-20 Windsor Essex allocation for this program component is approximately $2.8M with funding allocations available up to 2021-22.

Interested proponents may pick up the Request for Proposal documents from the City of Windsor’s Purchasing Department or through www.biddingo.com.

Submission deadline to the City’s Purchasing Department is 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27.