City Council offers hope for apartment seekers

If you are looking for an apartment in Sault Ste. Marie, take heart.

Sault Ste. Marie City Council, at its regular meeting Monday, unanimously approved a recommendation that provides a light at the end of the tunnel for rental unit seekers.

Speaking to SooToday.com, City of Sault Ste. Marie Planning Director Don McConnell said Council’s decision to offer a property tax rebate program for rental unit developers is not necessarily targeted at high end rental housing, but that “any new rental housing of at least four units will be eligible to qualify under the program, whether it’s high end or not high end.”

Ontario’s Municipal Act allows municipalities to offer grants, loans or property tax assistance to encourage developers to create more rental housing for those who need it.

Council, on Monday, approved a proposed Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan, recommended for Council approval by City staff, which will allow for a tax rebate for rental unit developers of up to 75 percent of the increase in municipal taxes in year one, 50 percent in year two, and 25 percent in year three.

McConnell told us an extra fourth year, 75 percent tax rebate incentive has also been approved for developers wanting to erect rental housing for facilities that offer an assisted living component, with additional spaces for nurses, physiotherapists, social service agencies and personal support workers, along with more barrier free units.

Because there is an urgent need for those looking for rental unit housing, how soon will those looking for it be able to find it?

“It all depends on the builders,” McConnell told us.

“By the end of September I would expect the program would be up and running and in place.”

“After that it’s up to the building industry to see if they want to take advantage of this and move forward,” McConnell said.

“It’s not something the City can enforce, but it’s something the City can encourage.”

A City staff report from the Engineering and Planning Department points out “during the past few years very few apartment units have been created without some type of incentive.”

The report states between 2006 and 2012, Sault Ste. Marie’s average vacancy rate was 1.4 percent.

That is half of the Ontario average.

A more acceptable, healthy community vacancy rate is considered to be 3 percent.

Such facilities would be eligible for one extra year of tax rebate. 

The report states prior to 1986, 28 percent of the Sault’s total housing were rental units.

Only 650 units out of 4,195 local units, or 15 percent, were classified as rental units by 2006.

Between 2006 and 2012, only 87 apartment units in buildings of more than four units were built.

That represents only 11 percent of the 824 housing units built locally during that time.

A report prepared for Council by City staff report pointed out Sault Ste. Marie has offered tax rebate incentives under the Municipal Act on two previous occasions.

In those cases, Council approved incentives for downtown development and new industrial development.

Those efforts led to over $30 million in new private development, the report states.

Several other Ontario communities offer various tax incentive programs for rental unit developers, including Peterborough, London, Welland, Windsor, Ottawa and Kitchener.