YIMBY Winnipeg is proud to announce support for the proposal to build more homes on the City-owned parking lot on Granite Way. This is a great project, with half (56 out of 111 homes) being homes with below market market rents, including around 30% (30 out of 111 homes) being deeply affordable, rent-geared-to-income homes affordable to families and individuals with low incomes.
There is great need for affordable, social housing in Winnipeg and this project addresses it. The Housing Assessment Resource Tool (HART), which is funded by the CMHC, estimates that there was a 34, 640 unit affordable housing deficit in Winnipeg based on 2016 data. Given population growth and a slow supply response, this deficit has almost certainly only grown since. Furthermore, the City of Winnipeg’s 2020 Housing Needs Assessment noted that social housing stock was declining. This project would help address by getting new social homes available for people.
This project goes a long way to meeting VARIOUS City of Winnipeg policy commitments outlined in Our Winnipeg, Centre Plan, and the Poverty Reduction Strategy goal that the City plans for and partners in affordable housing. It also aligns with the Province of Manitoba’s priority to build more affordable and social homes.
West Broadway is one of the most vibrant urban and least car-dependent neighbourhoods in Winnipeg. It is an ideal neighbourhood for more homes as a complete community where families and individuals can undertake various daily activities without need of a car. It is not the City’s job to keep prime, City-owned urban land permanently in the state of being an impervious surface parking solely due to private opposition.
The further hoops and barriers this affordable homes project has been put through with automatic referral to the Manitoba Municipal Board is regrettable and against the greater public interest that Winnipeggers have in affordable homes for families across the income spectrum. This is especially so given the perilous situation securing financing for deeply affordable housing developments can be for non-profit builders. YIMBY Winnipeg is pleased that changes to the Manitoba Municipal Board legislation that came into effect in June have raised the threshold for new automatic referrals to the Board.
Given the Council-directed condition to work with the Granite Curling Club on a parking plan prior to the issuance of a development permit, it is regrettable to consider the possibility that this stellar project will be held up well before then at the rezoning stage. As the adage goes, “time is money”, and the “death by a thousand cuts” of delay-after-delay, countless committee reviews and hearings, and the expectation of having an exact, technical solution to every potential issue on day one can kill many projects by for-profit builders, let alone non-profit builders who have to secure financing through a myriad of public funds and grants with their own conditions, time frames, and stipulations.
Much has been made of the historic status of the Granite Curling Club as a building, including its 140 year existence. But historic designation does not mean things stay exactly the same forever. It is highly unlikely Granite Curling Club operations depended on convenient vehicle access 140 years ago.