Affordable Housing in Nova Scotia and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Affordable Housing Program Summary of a Webinar, September 21, 2022
Jen Arntfield and Chad Meda, Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) presented on the Green Municipal Fund. Jen shared statistics to explain the environmental connection to housing vulnerability. “Energy poverty” describes the situation where people are unable to pay costs for utilities such as electricity and home heating, which further challenges those who are already facing housing poverty. This highlights the need to reduce these costs for residents by increasing the energy efficiency of affordable homes, both for heating, and access to cooling in response to the warming climate. Chad provided an overview of federal funding opportunities managed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. In 2020, a $300 million program was launched for sustainable affordable housing. Eligible projects must be led by municipalities, municipal corporations or non-profits. The funding structure supports organizations who are at different stages of development to create a plan and design that meets the criteria for energy efficiency. Study grants support project planning, energy modelling and feasibility that will then set the organization up to apply for capital financing. Pilot grants support the testing of innovative concepts that could be scaled up. Capital retrofits are supported through grants and loans. Grants are tied to the anticipated energy savings for retrofits and support additional costs for “net zero” new construction projects. To provide inspiration, Jen described examples of projects that have received funding. A housing co-op in Edmonton was able to conduct upgrades to their wood frame houses using prefabricated panels that allowed residents to remain in their homes during the renovations. A communication plan with the residents, through workshops and newsletters, was integrated to keep them informed of the process. They received funding to pilot retrofits on two units, then completed the rest of the units, and replaced fuel powered systems with renewables so the houses are now almost net-zero. A project in Rossland, BC, is a partnership between the municipality and a non-profit, to respond to the need for more workers’ housing. The new complex, designed to be net-zero will include space for the city hall on the ground floor, with affordable housing units above. In addition to funding construction and retrofits, FCM has a capacity building initiative to promote energy efficiency including case studies, fact sheets, webinar presentations, and they support a peer learning community of practice. A pilot has launched offering the services
of “regional energy coaches” to help organizations incorporate efficiency into their planning and to access funding. FCM has just released, Understanding Energy Efficiency: a guide for affordable housing providers to help people learn more about energy-saving measures that can be implemented. https://greenmunicipalfund.ca/resources/understanding-energyefficiency In summary, while the initiatives may not have been directly designed in response to the SDGs, they are addressing numerous goals: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17. The combination of capacity building efforts, seed grants, and different levels of funding supports provide opportunities for groups to explore ways to integrate energy efficiency into their affordable housing initiatives.
Connie Clement, volunteer director, Antigonish Affordable Housing Society (AAHS), spoke about the stepped approach the AAHS has taken, how opportunities through the FCM has supported their pilots, and how energy efficiency improvements reduce costs for tenants, while increasing their quality of life. After their first construction project, the AAHS realized that utility costs for tenants were still not affordable, so they had to find ways to absorb costs and fluctuations, so tenants’ expenses were manageable and predictable. The pilot project enabled them to integrate what they learned into subsequent building activities and further improve efficiency and renewable energy provision. The social building component includes a community navigator, community room, community gardens, and tenant advisory group. The location of the housing is within walking distance of schools and other services and is a stop for the community transit bus. Integrated into the work is an evaluation and learning component to determine the strengths and what works well, and what could be improved. FCM project staff provided support throughout the process and help find alternative solutions when hurdles appear. Connie closed with an observation on the importance of affordable housing being high quality and blending in with market housing in the same neighbourhood—sometimes it is necessary to push back when officials question the designs and suggest they are “too good” for low income housing.
Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Affordable Housing Program Summary of a Webinar, September 21, 2022 | Page 2
Discussion What was your main source of funding? Did you receive corporate funding? Human resourcing is a big challenge. It is not tenable to do this work without core staff support. We need people with sustained passion. Support was a combination of donor campaigns, land provided by the municipalities, federal and provincial grants, as well as a competition award. However, the interest on the mortgage could double next year and costs have risen substantially, leading to a greater debt load that is not sustainable long term. Costs have risen, and the organization is carrying more debt which is not sustainable, so corporate donors will be sought for both capital funding and core services which are part of the AAHS model, operations are part of the housing costs. For an organization at the early stages, have you suggestions on internal operations? The AAHS was told they did not have the capacity for a fundraising campaign, so they needed to start small with four units to develop a track record, demonstrate need in the community, and build capital to access a mortgage. Learning from other organizations, they recruited people to the board with the necessary skills. FCM’s planning grants are designed for these early stages, to fill that gap to get things off the ground, even to apply for seed funding, to help a group get to the next stage. Planning grants are designed to be simpler to acquire. The Community Housing Transformation Centre also has grants available for early stages of trying to form an organization before you can even think of a project, for some organizational capacity, governance, startup, check them out as a resource. In communities where some of these skills may not be available within, seed funding may help purchase the services or talent you may need. The regional energy coaches are helpful to assist a group get a project started and can identify experts to engage.