DUNNVILLE— An in-development affordable housing project in Dunnville is progressing closer to reality, with Haldimand Norfolk Housing Corporation (HNHC) CEO Matt Bowen announcing the project would be shovel-ready by the end of 2024.
“We do have the land transfer all worked out now,” said Bowen, addressing Council during an HNHC annual report presentation last week. “We have a piece of property we can start building on. Our plan is still a 35-unit mixed-use, mixed-income apartment building. It’s a combination of commercial space, where we can have different providers or programs, as well as our rent-geared units, our affordable units, and our market rentals. We’re really looking at building a complete community there that is diverse socially, economically, as well as with people.”
Bowen provided a breakdown of how space will be divided within the building, which will offer 11 one-bedroom rent geared-to-income housing units aimed at seniors, 15 one-bedroom affordable housing units, along with four one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom units to be rented out at market value.
“With that model we believe we can create the most amount of income that will make this building sustainable moving forward,” said Bowen on the inclusion of market value units.
HNHC were given permission to sell up to 10 units during Phase 1 of development, with Bowen reporting nine units sold so far.
He said that the remainder of 2023 would be spent completing various architectural procedures, noting, “We’ll start working with staff to make sure we’re on track in terms of what the right look and fit is for that neighbourhood.”
By second quarter 2024 Bowen envisions design work to be at 90% completion, including design documents/drawings, zoning bylaw approvals, funding applications, and a revised business plan to be presented to Council next spring, with an updated look at the overall cost of the project as dictated by both the increased scope of the project and inflation levels.
“I think there’s no doubt the scalability of the project has gone up, so the cost will be different…. There will be a plethora of different strategies we’ll look at, whether that’s having to sell a few more homes to raise some more capital. I know Council was clear here that the allocation that was made was what’s available, so we have to work within that,” said Bowen.