The Town of Stettler’s 2018 Strategic Goals identified an economic development plan as its fourth priority.
As a result, an economic development committee was formed to move the action items forward.
One of the target discussions of this committee is identifying a variety of housing needs within the community.
Although staff can see trends in the real estate market they have found it is difficult to attract housing or condo developers without substantial data and reporting identifying the gaps in the community.
The County of Stettler Housing Authority has budgeted $10,000 to have a senior focused Housing Needs Assessment completed in 2019.
At their regular meeting held on Tues. April 16, council approved the partnership with the County of Stettler Housing Authority to jointly issue a request for proposals for a housing needs assessment for the Town of Stettler and authorizes $10,000 from existing funding within the 2019 Operating Budget.
In meeting with Betty Tschritter, a discussion ensued regarding a partnership with the Town of Stettler to expand the scope of the assessment to an inclusive look at the housing continuum including but not limited to homelessness and special needs housing, affordable rental housing, rental market housing and the owner market housing.
Although grant funding for the assessment itself is known to be challenging there is confidence from administration that grant funding may be available for action items identified through the housing assessment particularly on the affordable and seniors housing spectrum.
The scope of the housing assessment will focus on the need for the demand for subsidized housing, owner market housing, rental market and find gaps and priorities in the continuum of housing including but not limited to homelessness and special needs housing, affordable rental housing, rental market housing and the owner market housing.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
