While Quebec and Ottawa are still looking for common ground on affordable housing funding, municipalities waiting for those funds must contend with another form of resistance: social acceptance. Projects that are victims of the “not in my backyard” syndrome are slow to see the light of day.
I knew about the almost structural polarization here in Sutton, but I still believed there would be a consensus on the issue of housing.
Robert Benoit has been mayor of Sutton for almost two years. When he was elected, he was surprised to learn that even city employees don’t live in the community because they can’t afford it. The ratings list has increased by 39% in three years. And it continues to increase, we see it in real estate transactions, he explains.
However, Sutton desperately needs to attract young families. According to the latest census data, 60% of the population is aged 55 and over.
Affordable housing quickly became a priority for Mayor Benoit, but he did not anticipate that his projects would be held back by his own citizens.
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Robert Benoit, Mayor of Sutton
Photo: Radio-Canada / Benoit Roussel
Among these stalled projects is that of Vieux-Verger. Not wanting to wait for subsidies from Quebec and Ottawa, the city of Sutton proposed purchasing 21 hectares of land in the heart of the community and building a new neighborhood with a total of about 80 new homes and affordable rental apartments.
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The Vieux Verger project would include a total of around 80 affordable housing units.
Photo: Courtesy: City of Sutton
To accomplish this, the community had to borrow $1.5 million. This amount should be used to remove the property from the real estate market, freezing its value and thus preventing speculation. All with the aim of reducing the costs of the houses to be built there.
But opponents of the project quickly emerged in the community of 4,500 residents. They distributed an anonymous leaflet saying it would cost $200 per year per person, which the mayor says was completely false.
There has been a lot of misinformation and untruths about the economic impact on people.
Despite information events explaining the project, the population remained divided. So much so that the municipality had to open a register that obtained the required number of signatures to force the holding of a referendum. The property owners then withdrew and the project was put on hold.
12 years of waiting and negotiating for 18 residential units
Meanwhile, on Main Street, workers are busy constructing a building with 18 units of affordable family housing on the site.
The project, initially funded through the defunct Société d’habitation du Québec housing access program, required intensive negotiations to finally get off the ground. “We have lobbied Minister Isabelle Charest at the provincial level and Pascale St-Onge at the federal level to ensure that the funds are released,” explains Robert Benoit.
But that wasn’t enough. It even took a 25-year city tax exemption, the property price paid by the city and $200,000 to complete financing for an $8 million project, he adds.
People do not want local taxes to be used for housing development, including affordable housing.
Some citizens have not digested the tax relief offered by the municipality. During a city council meeting last spring, a citizen did not hesitate to express her dissatisfaction. “This is not exactly what we call a tax revenue opportunity, you should go over the definition again,” Ann Dyer told Mayor Benoit.
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The Habitations Affordable Sutton project will finally be ready to welcome its first tenants in early 2024.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Valérie Gamache
The mayor isn’t waiting for an agreement between Quebec and Ottawa
At a time when Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and François Legault are arguing over the transfer of funds available in the federal Fund to Accelerate Housing Construction (FACL) program, Mayor Benoit has taken the lead.
During the city council’s last meeting on Wednesday, he told residents that the city has already submitted its subsidy application to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to be ready when the agreement is signed and that the amounts will be available.
In the meantime, the city is doing its homework and the Planning Advisory Board will set the rules for future projects to limit debates and deadlines.