Tag Archives: habitat for humanity

CKMS News -2024-05-03- Kitchener donates land for not-for-profit housing project, as MPP urges province to do the same.

CKMS News -2024-05-03- Kitchener donates land for not-for-profit housing project, as MPP urges province to do the same.

by: dan kellar

Kitchener – On April 29th, Kitchener city council approved a land donation to a not-for-profit to build affordable housing.  Habitat for Humanity will receive the land and have most development fees waived, and in return they will build more than 60 homes, including larger three and four-bedroom units, and smaller studio, one, and two-bedroom units”.

As of January 2024, more than 8000 people remain on the affordable housing waitlist in Waterloo Region alone, waiting years for assistance. However, Kitchener Centre Green Party MPP Aislinn Clancy’s new motion may address waitlists across the province as it calls on the provincial government to use provincial land to build affordable housing. 

This show features interviews with Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and MPP Clancy, who is also a former Kitchener city councilor. Mayor Vrbanovic focuses on how projects like this are helping to meet the city’s housing goals, while MPP Clancy discusses her new motion.

Waterloo Region all-councils meeting ends a difficult year on a note of hope

This year has been another year full of frustration, if not outright despair, for housing in Waterloo Region. But at the all-councils meeting on December 15, Build Now Waterloo Region offered some hope.

Build Now Waterloo Region is a new local collaboration of for-profit and not-for profit groups which was announced back in July.  The objective of the coalition is to build 10,000 non-market and perpetually non-profit homes by 2030.

Philip Mills, the chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region, one of the central players in this initiative, updated the all-council’s meeting on this ground-breaking project.

Of these 10,000 homes, 7,000 will be available for purchase and 3,000 will be available for rent.  A one bedroom home is set to sell for $280,000, a two bedroom for $330,000 and a three bedroom for $400,000. This project will specifically prevent ‘flipping,’ investment property acquisition, or other profit-seeking schemes.