City of Fredericton has limited ability to encourage affordable housing, councillor says

If Fredericton wants to eradicate homelessness, it has to work with all three levels of government to for affordable housing in New Brunswick's capital, a city councillor says.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fredericton has seen a jump in homelessness this year and advocates are calling on the city to make room for more affordable housing.

But it's not that simple.

"There has to be a leader in this and the leader is the federal government," said Coun. Bruce Grandy, who is also chair of the city's development committee.

"I'm not passing the buck here, it's just the situation."

Earlier this week, Dr. Sara Davidson, who works at Horizon's Fredericton Downtown Community Health Centre, said she's hopeful the city will consider reserving 25 per cent of the vacant land at the New Brunswick Exhibition Grounds for affordable housing to decrease homelessness in the city.

She plans to express this at public consultations expected to take place this fall.

Homelessness not just a city issue

Grandy applauded Davidson's dedication to helping Fredericton's homeless and said he's looking forward to her recommendations.

But he made it clear that homelessness in Fredericton is a big issue and mandating 25 per cent of the New Brunswick Exhibition Grounds to affordable housing is not something the city can do on its own.

Under the Municipalities Act, cities across New Brunswick are governed by the province. And if the city wants more developers to create affordable housing, it needs legislation from the province to do so.

But, bigger cities like Montreal don't need provincial legislation in order to create more affordable housing.

Grandy said the province also needs to work with Ottawa, who creates and decides how much money should be allotted from federal programs dedicated to infrastructure and affordable housing.

"Their program has to come forward before the province can pick it up and say, 'OK let's get together, how are we going to do this? And what kind or how many units can be subsidized in each of the major centres or other centres around the province?"

City dedicated to eradicating homelessness

Grandy said the city has discussed the issue of affordable housing with the province.

And the city's development committee is also in constant communication with developers, advocating for affordable or subsidized housing.

"We can't tell them that you have to have five per cent, 10 per cent, 25 per cent or you have to have 10 units out of 100 that are affordable housing."

Grandy said he isn't blaming anyone for a lack of affordable housing, but he did defend the city by mentioning its dedication to the Housing First project by donating parcels of land. He said the city has also been working alongside community based organizations that deal with homelessness, including the John Howard Society.

"It's not like we just sit there and don't listen and try to help," he said. "We do what we can and we try to help in the best way possible."