Attainable Housing for the Town of The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation’s (BMAHC) mandate is to facilitate the supply of suitable, adequate, attainable, and sustainable ownership and rental units in the Town of The Blue Mountains that are accessible to a larger portion of the population, in a financially prudent manner that supports economic development and workforce development.

BMAHC is getting ready to move forward with its first housing development at 171 King Street East, the site of the old Foodland store. This site was purchased by the Town and will be transferred to BMAHC to create attainable rental housing.

Based on housing affordability in The Blue Mountains, our target is to make housing available to meet the demand of moderate household income in the range of 50 – 130% of median income for TBM (approximately $40,000 to $100,000).

How to Get Involved

A public survey was launched for residents to provide input on the Attainable Housing Project conceptual plans. Consultation and feedback from the business community, prospective tenants, and the residents from our community is important to create attainable housing we can all be proud of. Input received will be presented to the BMAHC Board for consideration in the planning and design of our Gateway Project. The survey is now closed. Thank you for providing your valuable input!

BMAHC was established in 2014 with a Board comprised primarily of volunteer members in addition to the Mayor and one other Councillor from Town Council. The Corporation has launched two programs to date offering eligible persons a grant for establishing a Secondary Suite and another program that provides interest free loans for Down Payment Assistance to purchase a home.
Rising house prices have been consistently outpacing wages and have created a significant gap between what households are earning and what is required to rent or own a home in Town of The Blue Mountains (TBM). Further income inequality arises from a high proportion of TBM’s population with annual income over $150,000 (20% compared to 12% in the region). Local wage earners are left to compete with buyers and renters with significantly higher incomes.
Attainable Housing is for people who work in The Blue Mountains or have recently retired from active employment in The Blue Mountains. As shown in the graphic below, attainable housing bridges the gap by providing quality housing that is affordable and available for rent or purchase to eligible families or individuals whose housing needs are not being met by the private market.
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Our goal is that more families and individuals can live where they work and retirees can remain in the community in which they have worked.

Concept Plans

Conceptual Site Plan Options & Renderings

Project Surveys

Concept Plan Community Consultation Survey (Closed): BMAHC is looking for your input on conceptual plans prepared for our first attainable housing development at 171 King St East, which we are referring to as our Gateway site. While we are at the preliminary stage with technical assessments still being conducted to verify some of the site details and design considerations such as traffic, noise and odour, we want to your feedback to assist our Board in determining the criteria for the scale, layout and look of the project. This criteria will be provided to the Builder we hire to design and construct the project. Attainable housing provided by BMAHC must be affordable for moderate income earning working persons and families or recently retired seniors and we recognize there are many other considerations to also take into account. Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your comments.