Lakeshore receives over $7 million from the Government of Canada’s Housing Accelerator Fund

By: Matt Weingarden, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter

The Municipality of Lakeshore will recieve over $7 million from the Government of Canada’s Housing Accelerator Fund helping lay the groundwork for the building of new homes over the next decade.

Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey and members of Council and administration joined Irek Kusmierczyk, Member of Parliament for Windsor-Tecumseh, as well as Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff, for a joint funding announcement at the Atlas Tube Recreation Centre earlier this week.

“On behalf of Council and the residents of the Municipality of Lakeshore, I’d like to thank the Government of Canada for their support through the Housing Accelerator Fund. This grant will help us lay the foundation for unlocking Lakeshore’s full potential,” said mayor Bailey. “While there is much work ahead, we look forward to engaging residents from communities across our municipality as we implement our action items. Their feedback will be critical to the development of a shared vision for the future of housing in Lakeshore.”

The Housing Accelerator Fund is part of Canada’s National Housing Strategy an $115+ billion plan to give more Canadians a place to call home.

“At the core of these initiatives will be feedback from community members on how they would like to see their communities grow,” added Bailey. “As a Council, we recognize the need to protect our rural landscape, and this work will not change that goal. We will continue to hear from residents on where and how Lakeshore grows over the next decade.”

The funding will support several initiatives set out in Lakeshore’s Action Plan and include staffing resources to coordinate work under the action plan and reduce approval times for planning and building applications.

This will help to improve service delivery and remove barriers to make it easier to get homes built exploring how to leverage municipally owned land and financial incentives to spur affordable housing.

As well, local partnerships will be pursued to create a roadmap for accelerating sustainable and inclusive residential development.

“We also recognize that this funding is not a silver bullet. Lakeshore faces significant challenges related to our water and wastewater infrastructure and we will continue to seek funding from upper levels of government,” Mayor Bailey added.

A detailed list of Housing Action Plan initiatives will be presented later this year.