Belleville to receive $10.5 million in housing funding from federal government

It took another round, but the City of Belleville will be receiving funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund.

The announcement was made at Belleville City Hall Wednesday afternoon by Minister of Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis.

It will see a total of $10.5 million being provided to the city with a press release saying it would help lead to the construction of 259 homes over the next three years.

That is lower than the initial submission made by council which was $16.8 million which would lead to the construction of 460 housing units over the next three years.

When asked about the lower dollar total from the initial submission, Minister Erkine-Smith says it is a competitive process to receive funding.

“What I would just say on my end is you’ve got many municipalities that are looking to make changes, drive change and access funding to drive greater affordability, and in a competitive process, not everyone’s going to be successful in one hand,” Erskine-Smith said.

“On the other hand, I would love to give larger cheques to every municipality that I arrive in, but $138 million spread out across 20 plus municipalities in the second round only goes so far. So, you know, this was a fair allocation across those municipalities, as far as it goes.”

Mayor Ellis noted that the funding is still a significant amount for the city.

“$10.5 million is the second highest grant the City of Belleville has ever received, and the last one was the Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre back 10 years ago,” Ellis added.

“So $10.5 million is a lot of dollars, and I’m thankful that it’s going to go to a great cause and improve our planning process and our infrastructure.”

The City of Belleville laid out in its action plan for eight housing initiatives that the funding would help address:

Encourage alternative housing solutions for sustainable living

• Develop city-owned lands for housing to create rental and affordable housing units
• As-of-right permissions for urban housing options
• Identify municipal infrastructure needs to enable additional development potential
• Refresh the city’s Community Improvement Plan with additional affordable housing and missing middle programs
• Expand residential development opportunities through policy updates
• Streamline and enhance the development approval process for missing middle and affordable housing
• Enhance zoning provisions to enable a diverse housing supply

As part of its submission in September 2024, city council agreed to commit to a four units as-of-right policy in order to qualify for the funding.

Minister Erkine-Smith says the funding will be given to the city based on meeting certain milestones.

“There’s an initial 25% that flows, and then over a series of years, as milestones are met, additional funding flows in tranches of 25%,” Erkine-Smith explained.

The city had previously been denied in the first round of funding.

Belleville was one of 23 Ontario communities approved for funding in the second round.