Former Windsor naval base could soon be home to affordable housing
The former HMCS Hunter property at 960 Ouellette Ave. in downtown Windsor could soon be transformed into affordable housing following Tuesday’s federal budget.
According to the budget, the Liberals are laying out a “bold strategy to unlock 3.9 million new homes by 2031,” using a multitude of measures, including the Public Lands for Homes strategy.
“Our government wants to fast-track, prioritize, and accelerate the conversion of empty National Defense buildings like the HMCS Hunter downtown into affordable housing and into housing,” said Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk.
He continued, “We want to convert it into affordable housing as quickly as possible. Get it into the hands of not for profits, like Habitat for Humanity, or get it into the hands of developers to turn that vacant property that's doing nothing but sitting empty into affordable housing and into housing for our community.”
Kusmierczyk said officials hope to make a decision soon on selling or long-term leasing the vacant property, “We're going to be looking at the property and saying, ‘Does it make sense to sell it,’ because sometimes that takes a little bit of time. Or do we want to lease it, which is quicker, get it into the hands of developers and not for profits to get shovels in the ground, get that empty space converted into housing as quickly as possible.”
“Imagine working families in there. Imagine international students and students who are living there. Imagine nurses and doctors working at the hospital here on locum living there. That's what we want to see happen,” Kusmierczyk explained.
“So we're looking at that property. We're going to accelerate the process. We want to get it into the hands of developers as quickly as possible to turn it into affordable housing as quickly as possible,” he continued. “We're also looking at Canada Post, we're also looking at vacant government buildings that are underutilized.”
“We're going to be working together with municipalities, with towns and cities with mayors. We're going to be working with the private sector. We're going to be working with a not for profit, but 3.9 million homes is the target and we need to do that we need to get supply to bring the cost of homes down,” Kusmierczyk added.
“Certainly it's a great announcement that there's going to be some discussions about long term leases, but my real big concern is shovels in the ground,” said downtown city Coun. Renaldo Agostino. “When you look at the costs of getting these buildings done, and then you look at what the return is going to be, and then when you look at what the investment needs to be, and then what the interest rates are. This is the biggest problem that needs to be tackled right now, we need to sit down with developers and I've been speaking to some of them, trying to figure out what more can we do as a city to get your jobs done.”
“We’ve got to get more units out there,” Agostino explained. “We've got to kind of add more supply to lessen the demand and whether it's houses at Roseland or houses on the west side or more apartments at Glengarry, anywhere, right? Adding to the stock is going to help. It's not going to solve the problem, but it sure is going to help.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Slovakia's prime minister injured in shooting
Media reports say Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital.
Wildfire smoke forecast: Poor air quality in Western Canada, haze in Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires continue to impact air quality across Western Canada, with conditions expected to worsen on Wednesday before improving.
'Not a scarient': New COVID-19 subvariant dominant in Canada
A new COVID-19 subvariant is dominant in Canada, representing just over 30 per cent of cases in the country, but infectious disease experts say there’s no sign it’ll evolve into a summer 'scarient.'
DEVELOPING Massive manhunt in France for prison-break gang that gunned down officers
A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for an armed gang that killed two prison officers and seriously injured three others to spring an inmate they were escorting.
Growing wildfires across Western Canada are forcing thousands from their homes
Thousands of people in Western Canada remain displaced from their homes as wildfires threaten their communities, triggering evacuation orders and alerts.
Sun shoots out biggest solar flare in almost 2 decades, but Earth should be out of the way this time
The sun produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades Tuesday, just days after severe solar storms pummelled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places.
B.C. mom whose son died from wildfire smoke trying to make this year safer
As wildfires rage in British Columbia, the family of a nine-year-old who died last summer is trying to protect people from poor air quality due to smoke this year.
Victim loses $2M in online romance scam
A Malahide Township resident is out more than $2 million following a romance scam.
Stormy Daniels' husband says they'll likely leave country if Trump is acquitted
The husband of adult film actress Stormy Daniels said on Tuesday that there’s a 'good chance' the couple will leave the country if former U.S. president Donald Trump is acquitted in his Manhattan criminal trial.