Advancing Affordable Housing in Kingston

Rendering of the potential development at 7 Wright Crescent 

During the 2014 election I ran on a platform to move Kingston forward together. As your mayor I work daily to move us forward by ensuring  we make investments that improve the quality of life across  our community. This includes the investments being made to increase the supply of affordable housing in Kingston, which can include everything from the creation of housing with affordable rents to enabling home ownership.

I am very pleased to share some recent progress we are making on the affordable housing front. First, at our July council meeting, we approved an additional $1.2 million to increase the total number of affordable housing units for the new development on Wright Crescent that will be a mix of both market rent and affordable housing units. This additional investment will allow for more affordable housing units on the site, and will allow many of those units to be offered at even lower rents. The project still needs to go through a formal planning approval process, but the picture above provides a good idea of what it might look like once fully constructed.

This month council also took steps toward another affordable housing project at the corner of Princess Street and Hillendale Avenue. The details of the parcel of land have now been finalized, and next Spring the city will be actively looking for development proposals to build affordable housing on the property.

What’s great about both the Wright Crescent and the Princess/Hillendale projects are their locations and the partnerships that made them possible. Both sites are centrally located within the urban core of the city and along key transit routes. Not only are we increasing the supply of affordable housing in Kingston, but we are distributing it more evenly across the city to create a more integrated and equitable community. Both of these projects were made possible through partnerships, where the city is working with both non-profit housing providers and private developers towards a common goal of more affordable housing.

Working in partnership to move Kingston forward – now that’s what I call a smart and livable city!