The wait for affordable housing in Grey County is on average 4.5 years.
That’s according to an update from staff to council Thursday. Director of Community Services Anne Marie Shaw says depending on the type of housing, it can be up to 6 years. But, she notes the average across Ontario is anywhere from 5 to 20 years.
Shaw says it used to be 2.5 years in Grey County.
The number of people on the waitlist has ballooned. It went from 913 in 2020 to 2,272 in 2024. “It just speaks to our ongoing housing crisis and the need for affordable housing,” says Shaw.
She notes, 70 per cent of people who are on the waiting list are from Grey County.
Shaw says, “Certain areas, the waitlist is longer because our demand is longer and certain housing is longer too. A one-bedroom is our largest waitlist and our most, especially in Owen Sound, so you might be looking more towards six, but we may have housing in Holstein or somewhere that the waitlist may not be quite as long.”
She says, “Families could be waiting or individuals could be waiting up to six years, but we do have an average of about 4.5 throughout the county.”
Shaw notes, recently, County staff put in three applications for capital funding from the province to build affordable housing focusing on people who are in encampments or experiencing homelessness.
“One for our Grey County Dundalk build for 40 units, one for our non-profit Maam Wiim Win Native Homes for three row homes and one for Lutheran social services which is the conversion of commercial space into three one-bedroom units with one of those being affordable and we were awarded $182,000 to go towards the one affordable unit with Lutheran,” says Shaw.
She told County Council Thursday, construction has started on the three-unit Lutheran project and is expected to be done in July. She also says the Maam Wiim Win Native Housing through was successful through the (Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative) COCHI funding opportunity. Shaw says the County is still hoping to get funding through the CMHC affordable housing fund through the federal government.
In recent years, Grey County opened a supportive transitional housing building in on 14th Street West in Owen Sound, purchased a motel to run as an emergency shelter, and the local Brightshores Hospital corporation has opened a new addiction and wellness centre in the former Bayview School in Owen Sound.
