Housing York plans to examine the possibility of modular housing as another method to help address affordable housing shortages in the coming months.
Staff are set to bring back a report and further information on the concept in a workshop.
The modular housing could be slab-on-grade, which could progress faster than typical builds, board chair and Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said at a Jan. 23 meeting.
“I would love for us to move past the workshop stage, identify a piece of land and try to move a project forward. Having said that, along with innovative design, we need innovative financing,” Taylor said. “If we’re going to do this, let’s not spend a year or two talking about it. Let’s just identify something and do it.”
Modular housing consists of homes prefabricated off-site and assembled on location. Other jurisdictions have turned to this as a way to add more affordable housing. For instance, the City of Toronto has planned for 1,000 new modular homes in the city by 2030, with more than 200 completed, according to the city website.
Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said with 18 months left in the term before municipal elections become a focus, Housing York should move on this concept.
“Maybe there’s some things and decisions that we can make as a board to get it before council to get other projects moving in the next year and a half,” Lovatt said. “It’d be great to see more than just (affordable housing projects) Bayview (Parkway) and Box Grove happening.”
Taylor identified financing as an issue. York Region has had some problems finding funding from upper levels of government to help pay for Housing York’s affordable housing projects, such as 62 Bayview Pkwy. in Newmarket.
General manager Karen Antonio-Hadcock said it is something staff could bring back for a workshop in the spring, with examples from other jurisdictions and a discussion on financing.
“I’m hoping that we can continue the momentum that’s already started,” she said. “Hopefully, we can learn from these other examples and make it a reality in York Region.”
Taylor said they should also examine finding third-party partners to help with builds such as modular housing. He also said lower-tier municipalities could advance modular housing at their level if they got support from the region.
“The ideal scenario would be, three or four or five municipalities that say, ‘here’s our piece of land, RFP out to one successful modular builder, with a certain financial model attached to it,' and now we’re really starting to move.”