On November 9, 2022, CHRA (Canadian Housing and Renewal Association) hosted a webinar which focused on CMHC Updates: Budget 2022 Housing Initiatives. CMHC staffs from policy development, programs, and research joined the webinar and presented about initiatives driven by Federal Budget 2022 with the goal of building more homes and making housing more affordable across the country.

There were three presentations during the session and a Q&A afterward.

The first presentation of the session included a number of slides on the budget initiatives updates. A recap of the first presentation is provided below:

The 2022 Federal budget saw a number of measures announced with the goal of building more homes and making housing more affordable across the country.

CMHC initiatives driven by budget 2022:

• One-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit
  • Budget 2022 announced $475 million in 2022-23 for a one-time $500 payment to those facing housing affordability challenges.
  • Funding was increased to $1.2 billion following the Budget announcement to support 1.8 million renters.
  • To be directly delivered by the federal government. It complements Canada Housing Benefits but does not directly go necessarily to recipients of the Canada Housing Benefit in that regard, however, it could depend on somebody’s situation.
  • There is an income threshold: for families, there is a requirement of $35,000 of income or below. For individuals: it is $20,000 of annual income.

Timeline: Applications for the one-time-top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit opened on December 12, 2022. More details can be found here.

• Urban, Rural, Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy
  • $300 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to co-develop and launch a Northern, Urban, and Rural Indigenous Housing Strategy.
  • Building on existing and new investments for indigenous communities, including for the three distinctions-based housing strategies: First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.
  • The more details in launching the next round will be coming fairly soon.

• Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI)
  • Third round of RHI with $1.5 billion over two years, starting in 2022-23.
  • This new funding is expected to create at least 4,500 new affordable housing units, with at least 25 per- cent of funding going towards women-focused housing projects.
  • The new round is now released. The $1.5 billion funding is divided into 2 streams:
  • Project Stream ($1B)
  • Cities Stream ($500M)

• National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF)
  • Advance $2.9 billion in funding under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, so that remaining funds are spent by 2025-26.
  • Goal is to accelerate the creation of up to 4,300 new units and the repair of up to 17,800 units for Canadians who need them most.
  • The program is to be made both more flexible and easier to access, including with more generous contributions and faster approvals.

• Co-Operative Housing Development
  • Reallocation of $500 million of funding from the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, to launch a new Co-operative Housing Development program aimed at expanding Co-op housing in Canada.
  • $1 billion in loans to be reallocated from the Rental Construction Financing Initiative to support Co-op housing projects.
  • Check the CMHC Portal for more information on Co-operative housing.

• Innovation Fund and Rent-To-Own
  • $200 million in dedicated support under the renewed Affordable Housing Innovation Fund to help develop and scale up rent-to-own projects across Canada. The Affordable Housing Innovation Fund supports new ideas that will drive change and disrupt the industry – ideas and approaches that will evolve the affordable housing sector and create the next generation of housing in Canada.
  • To support non-profits, co-ops, developers, and rent-to-own companies building new rent-to-own units. The Rent-to-Own stream of the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund is for housing providers interested in developing, testing and scaling innovative rent-to-own models and projects.

• Canada Greener Affordable Housing
  • Provide low-interest loans and grants to non-profit and co-op housing providers as part of the low-income stream of the Canada Greener Homes Loan
  • Budget 2022 announced $458.5 million in contributions, in addition to loans, for non-profits and co-ops to undertake retrofits.

• Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFI)
  • Reform RCFI by strengthening its affordability and energy efficiency requirements. At least 40% of units to have rents at or below 80% of average market rent.
  • Developers who significantly exceed these requirements and build highly affordable and energy efficient units would be eligible to have a portion of their repayable loans converted to nonrepayable loans.

• Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF)
  • $4 billion over five years with a target of 100,000 net new housing units.
  • Funding to support local governments to implement reforms that address systematic barriers and increase the supply of housing.

The second presentation was about a program that is part of NHS called the housing supply challenge. A summary of presentation is as follows:

• Housing Supply Challenge
• The housing supply challenge started in 2020-21 will provide up to $300 million in funding under a series of unique challenges on different topics over a five-year period.
• There are 5 rounds and it is currently in the 4^th round which is focusing on the innovations in construction of new units, as well as the preservation of older units. An upcoming round is anticipated that will focus more on scaling solutions.
• Challenge round and structure timeline:
  • Concept development phase: a four-month period up to April 13, 2023 for applicants to work on their applications to the program.
  • Design and Feasibility phase: this is an evaluation phase that there will be a shortlist of group of applicants who have additional time to figure out their design, feasibility, and planning for implementation. This will take 5 months.
  • Implementation phase: the applicants selected for funding will receive the money to implement their solutions.
• Application form opens online at: Impact.canada.ca on December 1^st at 2 pm EST. The application deadline is till April 13, 2023 at 2 pm EST.

Cahdco Toolbox which is a two-tiered program to coach and mentor housing organizations to increase their development capacity and encourage housing providers to create their own development corporation is a CMHC Housing Supply Challenge funded initiative. If you are interested in reading more about the “Toolbox”, please read our previous blog posts in the links below:

2. Cahdco’s Toolbox: A Final Funding Recipient for Round 2 of the Housing Supply Challenge
3. Cahdco’s Affordable Housing Development Toolbox

The final presentation was about the longitudinal housing outcomes research program that was recently launched. The program emerged out of a growing realization that longitudinal housing research has yielded deep, nuanced information, data results historically and internationally.

• National Housing Strategy Longitudinal Outcomes Research
  • The purpose of the research is to conduct research on the impact of federal housing, investments on health, the environment, and socio-economic outcomes both at the household and community level.
  • $5 million over the course of five years to design and put into place longitudinal research on housing outcomes.
  • The research opportunity launched on August 9, 2022.
  • Deadline for submission was in November 22, 2022.
  • The adjudication process will begin after submission deadline ends to select teams who will be funded.
  • How you fit in this initiative?
    • If you are interested in participating as part of research team
    • If a research team approaches you as to partner and participate in the research.
    • If you are interested in knowledge output, there will be an arrangement for ongoing series of knowledge mobilization events.

Cahdco is also part of an application for the mentioned research funding opportunity which is led by Carleton university.