City council has approved a 10-year plan for affordable housing in St. John’s.
“Housing stability is at the core of our municipalities’ well-being,” Mayor Danny Breen stated in a news release.
“The City of St. John’s commits to providing leadership and building on partnerships to generate affordable housing solutions across the housing continuum.”
The City of St. John’s Affordable Housing Strategy expands on the original 2014 plan’s mandate that the city should work to ensure people have affordable housing opportunities.
The strategy states that for housing to be considered affordable, it must cost less than 30 per cent of a household’s pre-tax income – including mortgage or rent, property taxes, home energy, water and repairs.
The strategy will focus on households whose income is too high to be eligible for social housing, but too low to afford rent or home ownership.
In working toward affordable housing for everyone in the city, the plan will focus on six specific areas.
Those include identifying and drawing on the city’s resources, increasing affordable rental and ownership opportunities, finding creative ways to make housing affordable, creating municipal policies, cultivating partnerships and raising awareness about the impact of housing needs.
The strategy can be viewed in its entirety online at stjohns.ca.
