Earlier this month, it was among the 16 projects awarded a total of nearly $3.3 million by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation under the National Housing Strategy’s demonstrations initiative.
OCLT has been granted $250,000 over three years to set up a revolving loan fund to facilitate strategic property acquisition.
With a revolving loan fund — to be developed in partnership with the Ottawa Community Foundation and with the potential for philanthropic donations — the acquisition dollars wouldn’t just disappear into a single property purchase.
“The real estate market is just so incredibly commodified that the collateral damage in that process is lower income folks … not even just lower, but lower and middle-income folks that either can’t find affordable rentals they can’t get into the home ownership market,” Pomeroy said.
Another land-trust possibility is presented by private developers, from whom the city can secure community benefits such as affordable housing in exchange for permission to build bigger.
At least one member of the development community already thinks the OCLT could be an excellent place to park a community benefit, in some form.
Westeinde, president of Zibi Canada and partner at Theia, one of two developers on the Zibi project along the Ottawa River, says he’s yet to meet a developer who doesn’t have their eye on affordability issues.
While it’s a non-profit, Pomeroy thinks the land trust has to be revenue-generating to be effective, acquiring land or buildings and then collecting lease income from those occupying the building or building on that land to sustain the organization.
With help from their new staff member, they’ll soon develop an action plan for the years to come.
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