HOUSING: My Plan for a housing initiative will involve the City teaming up with the local social assistance organizations, Loyalist College and other trade organizations. A corporation called the Belleville Development Corporation (BDC) would be formed to oversee the education and experience aspects of training our people, young and older, skilled or not. The Mandate of the BDC will be to raise the standard of living for community members through employment, education and skills development through training and on site experience. The BDC will work collectively with our community to reduce housing costs, training costs, capital costs and city expenses. Training will include: - house foundations, - general equipment operation, - heavy equipment operation - framing and all aspects of home construction The BDC will utilize able bodied, social assistance recipients, high school students, college and post secondary students, young and old people looking for new employment opportunities. The purpose of the program will be to train individuals in all aspects of infrastructure construction, complete home building, landscaping and any services required by the city. This will reduce costs to the city, assist in reducing social programs’ costs, reduce city budgets, provide a viable workforce for our community, provide skilled individuals that will be available to construct much needed infrastructure for the city and future development. My plan for housing will be to construct over 200, (per year) 1200 square foot homes on city property. (three bedroom raised bungalows complete with appliances) BDC employees with a minimum of 1 year steady employment will be given first option on units as they become available. A point system will be devised to set specific qualifications for recipients. As of this date, (March 2014) the set cost of these houses will be $150,000. They will be financed through a financial institution just as in a regular mortgage with current rates. Stipulations of the mortgage will include such items as a guarantee of sale for a minimum of 13 years to ensure no resale of properties for profit. This means that the mortgagees would keep their properties for 13 years without selling. For an initial investment of land and 12 million dollars, 200 homes can be built. After the first year the city would see returns of $30 million which provides a clear profit of $18 million dollars. Factoring in average tax rates of the day at approximately $3,000 per year per household the city would receive an additional revenue of $600,000 annually. Over a 70 year life span the city would receive $42 million and this is only for the initial 200 homes. Two hundred homes per year over a 4 year term would provide 800 homes for our hard working families. City revenues could escalate to over $72 Million with $2.4 million in tax revenue and over $288 million within its life span. We must not forget that we would be reducing Social Services’ expenses of 8 Million dollars that we presently pay to Hastings county. We could potentially reduce city budgets by an additional 4 to 6 million dollars. The additional $18 Million in revenue would be used to benefit our community. Together the City of Belleville and the BDC can ensure our cities’ requirements for affordable housing, provide a viable work ready labour force and become more self sustainable. No matter how you look at this picture, it is win/win for all concerned. Herrington For Mayor (Other communities may look at the BDC as a model for their town.)
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:07:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015