Belleville City Council carried a motion from Councillor Paul Carr calling on Hastings County to develop a multi-year capital plan for the construction of affordable and social housing in order to eliminate the current county waitlist for housing.
The motion from Councillor Carr, which also includes the plan that is subject to federal and provincial funding, was introduced during council’s meeting on Monday.
Introducing the motion, Carr spoke of a presentation in February 2023 from the former CAO of Hastings County, Jim Pine, outlining a seven-year plan that proposed to build at least 7000 community rental units over seven years across the region to address wait lists.
Carr says there hasn’t been much discussion about the $3.1 billion plan since it was presented.
“The wait list for social housing for all of Hastings County, as of April 30, is 3546 households. That’s broken down into 1424 families, 1089 non-senior, single under 50 and 1033 seniors, 50 plus,” Councillor Card said while going over the current wait list.
“Then the Belleville numbers as of April 30, specifically are 3089 households. 1248 families, 1007 non-senior, single under 50 and 834 seniors, 50 plus.”
Carr says it is important for the mayor and council to send a message to create a plan.
“This isn’t about grandstanding or anything like that, it is simply that there’s four of us that represent the city, and we need the voice of mayor and council at the committee in order to call on Hastings County as the service manager to develop a multi-year plan.”
Council voted in favour of the motion, with a copy to be sent to the Hastings County Community and Human Services Committee.
