Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano said Tuesday the city needs more rental units.
City council voted this week to extend the Rental Housing Incentive Program as a means of addressing housing affordability. However, Provenzano said that’s only part of the solution to the low vacancy rate.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation places the local rental vacancy rate at just under two per cent, which is below the three-to-five per cent CMHC defines as a “healthy” vacancy rate.
Provenzano said a lack of high-density housing development in the city is part of the problem.
“We are hopeful we will see one soon,” he said.
“On Pim Street, there’s a really great project that’s being proposed that is near shovel-in-ground that will, I think, add an additional 100 units to the market. So we need to see more of that.
"I’ve said a number of times at council, our community, our ability to grow will be directly correlated to our ability to increase the housing supply,” he added.
Provenzano said if the Sault is to continue to grow, increasing housing supply is vital.
“I do see growth in the near term on the horizon in Sault Ste. Marie," he said.
"I believe if we had more housing in the community -- supportive housing, affordable housing and high-density residential housing, single-family residential housing -- people would move here because there is a housing shortage across the Province of Ontario.”
