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County Council Approves Two Affordable Housing Projects

Friday, 15 May 2015 06:07

Innerkip and Tillsonburg will be getting new affordable housing projects, with hopes of more on the way through the Housing First Policy.

OXFORD COUNTY - Approval has been granted by County Council to fund affordable housing projects in two locations within Oxford County.  

Innerkip and Tillsonburg are set to welcome homes that will assist people in need who find it difficult to stay in their own home.  Heart FM spoke with Mayor of East Zorra Tavistock, Don McKay, about this new endeavour and the impact it will have on the village of Innerkip.  "It is a great opportunity. The Provincial money will quickly run out, we have more needs than we have money or assets for.  If we could trade some county assets to reinvest them in housing projects we will come out much better for that."    

As excited as Mayor McKay was he stressed this is only the beginning, and is hopeful a new policy called Housing First will assist the project.
"What it really does though, is it sets the table for the fact that we can consider more than what we currently have.  Today we approved the project but it is only a start; the Housing First Policy gives us a revenue stream that we could consider to go beyond that."  McKay adds by reinvesting current county assets into projects such as affordable housing it will improve Oxford especially in the smaller communities.        

Warden of Oxford County, David Mayberry, details the new policy that will assist the growing demand of affordable housing.  "We would like to expand the amount of social housing we have in the community.  When we have an asset we no longer need, if we sold that asset the policy would simply say should we use either that property or should we use the proceeds of that property to further our social housing stock."  According to Warden Mayberry the growth of a community depends on having a place where everyone can call home, and it is essential to not forget about the smaller communities when looking to create buildings that meet all income levels.  

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