City affordable housing grants spur development, provide homes for low-income earners

Edmonton's former downtown YMCA building is being transformed into modern apartments, with a beer hall and stores at street level — but not for wealthy young professionals.

Under the City of Edmonton's Affordable Housing Investment Program, the building on 102A Avenue between 100 and 101 streets is being transformed into 90 units of affordable housing for low-income young adults.

Williams Hall is one of five projects the city is subsidizing with nearly $17 million under the program, which provides grant funding to encourage affordable housing development.

City administration recommended granting $16.7 million to the projects, resulting in the construction of 276 new affordable housing units. The units for qualifying tenants would be offered at 80 per cent of average market rent, with 67 of them offered at 50 per cent.

The city's goal under the program is to create 2,700 affordable housing units between 2023 and 2026.

The chief executive officer of Beijan Developments, which bought the old YMCA property in 2018, led Edmonton city councillors on a tour Monday of the $35-million Williams Hall project, which received $6.5 million in grant funding from the city and is projected to open in 2025.

"We all know that when families have a safe, high quality and affordable place to live, our whole society benefits," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said.

The grants to eligible non-profit and private sector builders provide up to 25 per cent of the capital costs for new or rehabilitated affordable housing developments.

The investment of $16.7 million is expected to generate $122.3 million in construction value and would contribute to the long-term supply of affordable housing.

During the intake period of March 29 to July 7, city administration received five applications for new affordable housing projects from three organizations.

Beyond Williams Halls, other projects include:

• the use of 150 of 334 new units being constructed in Edgemont for affordable housing;
• two 12-unit buildings in the west-end Glenwood neighbourhood and one in central Spruce Avenue to provide transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness who have been discharged from hospital emergency departments.

"We know it really works well transitioning people from chronic homelessness to transitional housing to permanent housing," Murray Soroka of the Jasper Place Wellness Centre said of the transitional bridge homes, which received $747,000 in city grants towards the $3-million developments.

Nearly half of the two-bedroom units in the $83-million Edgemont project, which received $9 million in city funding, will be offered at nearly half the rental market price.

"Fifty per cent off of a market rent is huge," Dinika Matychuk of Leston Holdings, which will manage and operate the development that's slated to open in the spring of 2024, said on Monday. "That’s going to change a lot of people’s lives. We wouldn’t be able to do that without this grant."