Future Edmonton recreation centres could include affordable housing

Future Edmonton recreation centres and other city buildings could soon include affordable housing units, if the province allows the idea.

Mayor Don Iveson said the proposalis beingfloated as a more efficient way to build up the city's stock of affordable housing.

"You can make the public land go further that way," Iveson said."The possibilities are kind of endless. You just have to have the will to look at it."

Currently, housing is notallowed on municipal reserve land, but that could change when the provincial government tables revisions to the Municipal Government Act later this year.

Iveson said the city asked specifically for the change to the MGA during negotiations with the province. He said Edmonton may pilot the idea as part of big city charter negotiations with the province as well.

He said the province may have to change the schools act if they hope to include future housing opportunities on school sites.

The idea has been tried in Calgary in the multi-purpose Lewis Station development, which houses a fire-EMS station, affordable housing and residential, office and commercial units.

Affordable housing budget to be cut in half

The city's affordable housing budget will be slashed by more than half in 2018, whenthe current five-year program comes to an end.

For the last several years, the city has annually put $3.5 million into its affordable housing strategy, using money from budget surpluses.

That practice will end in 2018, which will cut the overall budget from $6 million to $2.5 million.

"We're effectively cutting the program by more than half," said Coun. Ben Henderson.

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The city's chief financial officer,Todd Burge, said trying to predict budget surpluses each year is bad practice for the city.Iveson said using surplus dollars for affordable housing depletes the city's financial stabilization reserve.

The new five-year affordable housing plan calls for $1 million to buy units from developers for affordable housing, $1.2 million to upgrade secondary suites, and $335,577 for rebates.

That leaves no funding left over after 2017 to develop surplus school sites, another priority for the program.

Iveson, who has advocated for greater investments in social housing, said council shouldn't renew that funding until it knows how much the provincial and federal governments will contribute.

"I don't think we should be putting the dollars in," Iveson said. "I think we should be providing the land and supporting with public engagement."

Ivesonsaid the city will stillcontributevaluable land to affordable housing projects.

He said the city is now shifting the responsibility to fundaffordable housing back to senior levels of government, and the city may not have to invest as much cash moving forward.

Both governments allocated new funding for affordable housing in their budgets, but city staff don't yet know how much Edmonton will be entitled to.

It's also not clear if the government will require a financial contribution from the city for affordable housing projects.