City of Kitchener set to waive property taxes for affordable housing providers

At a finance committee meeting this week, the City of Kitchener pushed forward plans to give non-profit groups more opportunities to build affordable housing.

Pending council approval, the move would look to give charitable and non-profit affordable housing providers more financial wiggle room to build units by waiving their property taxes.

The program was introduced by the Region of Waterloo earlier this year.

If approved, the program would see the burden of $1.5 million in property tax dollars shifted from non-profit affordable housing providers to the rest of the population that pays property taxes.

Ward 1 Councilor Scott Davey sees the benefits of the program, but notes the flaw in who’s footing the bill.

To use an analogy, if everyone’s struggling to pay for milk, the wrong solution in my mind is to make milk more expensive for 99 per cent of people so that you can make it less expensive for 1 per cent of people,” said Davey.

“The solution has to be your more progressive tax systems, income tax, corporate tax, consumption tax, that’s really what should be funding this, not property tax.”

More affordable housing is also on the way in Waterloo.

Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe says the city is looking for an appropriate non-profit group or consortium to build affordable units on the vacant piece of land at 2025 University Avenue East, adjacent to RIM Park.

The requirements a group would need to meet to be eligible to build on the land is to offer 30 per cent or more of the units constructed must be at or below 80 per cent of the average market rent, and must stay at that rate for at least 60 years.

The rest of the units are required to be affordable or attainable, meaning their rent must be between 80 and 100 per cent of the low-end average market rent.

“We know that the pressure is now and that people need these affordable and attainable housing units and rental units right now,” said McCabe.

The City of Waterloo has also signed on with the Region of Waterloo to waive property taxes for affordable housing providers and developers.