Moving Along The Housing Continuum
A private/public partnership will see the development of 83 affordable and attainable rental units on two sites owned by the City of Welland. The project is being designed so that tenants can progress along the continuum of unit types and support levels as their independence grows over time.
At its meeting on November 18, council for the City of Welland approved a motion to sell one City-owned site and lease another across the street to a non-profit housing provider for the purpose of developing an affordable rental project. The sites are located either side of the Crowther Avenue road allowance, just north of Broadway Street. The lands will be developed to create a mix of 83 deeply affordable, affordable, and attainable rental units across the two sites.
The development is a partnership between the newly-formed Community Land Trust of Niagara (CLTN) and Bethlehem Housing and Support Services (BHSS). BHSS will lease the City- owned site on the east side of Crowther and develop a four storey building with 40 deeply affordable one and two-bedroom units, along with a ground-floor community hub. On the west side of the road, the City will sell its land to the CLTN for a nominal amount for the land trust to develop a second four-storey residential building containing 13 affordable and 30 attainable rental homes.
BHSS will operate and manage both buildings, providing additional tenancy and social supports as needed. Currently, both sites are vacant. The project will be CLTN’s first. City of Welland policy planning manager Nicolas Aiello tells NRU the development was proposed as a “housing continuum project,” whereby tenants have the option of accessing support and deeply affordable housing on the BHSS-developed site, before progressing into the CLTN site’s attainable rentals over time as they gain independence.
“We look outside and there are people who need all sorts of support,” says Aiello. “And they need housing throughout the continuum, whether that’s emergency shelter units all the way to affordable home ownership.”
BHSS, which has been operating in Niagara Region since 1989, has grown to build and manage four buildings in the region, totalling 234 affordable units with corresponding social support services. “BHSS offers supportive transitional and permanent housing for men, women, and their children, with a focus on families who are homeless due to issues with poverty, physical disability, mental health, domestic violence, and family breakdown,” reads a presentation delivered to Welland city council, written in part by BHSS executive director Lori Beech.
“…BHSS stabilized their lives by providing housing and support services to help them break the cycle of homelessness and gain the confidence, skills, and health to remain securely housed.”
In a statement, City of Welland director of planning and development services Grant Munday said the Crowther Avenue development reflects that exact need.
“This project responds directly to the growing need for safe, stable, and affordable rental housing in our community,” he said. “These new homes will help individuals and families who are struggling to find suitable housing in today’s market, and they reflect the type of long-term community support that many residents need.”
Aiello tells NRU that BHSS and the CLTN approached the City of Welland with a proposal for the vacant lands on Crowther Avenue hoping they would qualify for incentives through the City’s Affordable Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP). The proposal was supported by staff and considered by the city council’s Affordable Housing Task Force, which also supported the idea. Ultimately, council approved the project for $403,000 in incentives through the affordable rental housing CIP. BHSS and the CLTN will seek additional funding from other levels of government as well.
Aiello calls the funding structure a “multi-pronged approach,” noting that since council adopted the CIP in 2023, the City of Welland has supported the development of approximately 244 affordable housing units — including the units proposed for the two Crowther Avenue sites. Most of the CIP recipients are also able to qualify for funding through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) or through Build Canada Homes.
“When all those things are able to come together and you have a very supportive council and their advisory committees, you start to see an impact.”