Pickering to take second shot at provincial housing ‘accelerator’ fund

Pickering will take one more crack at getting a piece of the Province’s Housing Accelerator Fund, a program that was topped up with an extra $400 for communities who weren’t approved during last year’s initial rollout.

Pickering Council is expected to approve a staff recommendation at Tuesday’ special Council meeting that the City apply during the second phase of the program, which was launched to create more housing at an accelerated pace with enhanced certainty during the permit process.

The Housing Accelerator Fund rewards communities that buy into the Province’s new 4-unit ‘as-of-right’ zoning changes and is aimed at supporting the development of “complete communities” that are “walkable, affordable, inclusive, equitable and diverse.”

To be eligible, cities must also commit to a housing supply growth target that increases the average annual rate of residential unit growth by a minimum of 10 per cent.

The Province announced the new program in the spring of 2022 and rolled it out last summer. Pickering applied but was denied, with just 179 of the 544 municipal applicants receiving funding.

The ruling Progressive Conservatives topped it this year and opened it back up to communities that had applied in 2023 but were denied, with a goal of building an extra 12,000 housing units beyond those already approved.

Pickering is the only community in Durham that has already qualified for a financial bonus for meeting its provincially-imposed housing targets, smashing its goal by 350 units with half a year to go. Pickering was also the only Durham town to earn the bonus last year, with a record-breaking year for housing starts (1,502 new units) earning the city a $5.2 million bonus.

The deadline for submitting applications for the new program is September 13.