Housing Action Plan

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Earlier this year, Lakeshore received over $7 million from the Government of Canada’s Housing Accelerator Fund. The funding will help lay the groundwork for the building of new homes over the next decade.

The funding will support several initiatives set out in Lakeshore's Approved Action Plan. The initiatives include:

• Staffing resources to coordinate work under the action plan and reduce approval times for planning and building applications.

• 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.

• Local partnerships to create a roadmap for accelerating sustainable and inclusive residential development.

Partnership with Windsor Law's Centre for Cities

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At the meeting on March 25, 2025, Lakeshore Council approved a groundbreaking local partnership with the Windsor Law’s Centre for Cities (C4C). The innovative partnership is designed to modernize and improve Lakeshore’s planning and development processes and support the achievement of milestones set out in Lakeshore’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) Approved Action Plan.

The initiatives under the partnership include community design charettes, review of the Official Plan and Zoning By-law, exploring the use of municipal land for housing projects, as well as the development of an affordable housing strategy and Community Improvement Plan to provide financial incentives for new housing.

There will be significant opportunity for community involvement in planning the Lakeshore of the future. Stay tuned!

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Background

• Lakeshore has been allocated $7,436,162 in funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) over four years under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) program. The Municipality is now required to implement the approved initiatives to accelerate housing development and meet its housing supply growth target of 898 new units by Q1 2028. The Lakeshore Housing Needs Assessment 2025fulfills Initiative 9 of the Lakeshore HAF program. 

  In 2024, Housing-Infrastructure Canada released the template for municipalities to use to develop a Housing Needs Assessment. Housing Needs Assessments (HNAs) provide data to support evidence-based decision making at the local and community level. Having this data helps all levels of government make informed decisions about their infrastructure and housing investments in order to build the most suitable housing for their communities. An HNA helps a community gather critical housing data to guide decisions on the type and location of housing to build, as well as the infrastructure needed to support community growth. 

  The federal government is taking an integrated approach to housing and infrastructure. Communities with a population of 30,000 or greater will need to complete an HNA to be eligible for federal funding under infrastructure programs. 

  Some of the federal funding programs that require the HNA include the HAF, Federal Gas Tax Rebate, and other federal grants related to housing and infrastructure. The HNA is required to be updated every 5 years to meet the current federal requirements.  

• Lakeshore Receives Over $7 Million Through Housing Accelerator Fund [Media Release]

• Council adopted the draft Housing Action Plan at the August 15, 2023 meeting. The document sets out goals and objectives related to housing in Lakeshore.

• At the special meeting on September 3, 2024, Council took action on housing by committing to pass a Zoning By-law Amendment that would permit four units “as-of-right" on residential properties.
• Housing Accelerator Fund