Open Council

10th Special Council Meeting

Open Council

10th Special Council Meeting

June 17, 2025, at 11:00 AM

Original link

The meeting is called to order at 11:05 AM; it being noted that Councillors S. Trosow, C. Rahman, P. Van Meerbergen, and S. Hillier were in remote attendance.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED the no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Recognitions

None.

3.   Review of Confidential Matters to be Considered in Public

None.

4.   Council, In Closed Session

None.

5.   Confirmation and Signing of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting(s)

None.

6.   Communications and Petitions

6.1   Highly Supportive Housing Contribution Agreement for Indwell Community Homes Development at 346 South Street, London

2025-06-17 Staff Report - Highly Supportive Housing Contribution-Schedule l

2025-06-17 Staff Report - Highly Supportive Housing Contribution

At 11:09 AM, His Worship Mayor J. Morgan, places Deputy Mayor S. Lewis in the Chair. 

At 11:11 AM, His Worship Mayor J. Morgan resumes the Chair.

Motion made by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, the following actions be taken:

a)    a grant of $3,152,410, in the form of a forgivable loan, to Indwell Community Homes for the development and operation of ninety-six (96) highly supportive housing units at 346 South Street BE AUTHORIZED AND APPROVED; it being noted that the grant amount was approved by Council on December 7, 2021 and August 2, 2022 for the provision of ninety-six affordable housing units;

b)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the staff report dated June 17, 2025 as Appendix “A”, BE INTRODUCED at Municipal Council on June 17, 2025, to:

i)    APPROVE the Contribution Agreement between The Corporation of the City of London and Indwell Community Homes attached as Schedule “1” (the “Contribution Agreement”);

ii)    AUTHORIZE the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, or their written designate to approve amendments to the Contribution Agreement;

iii)    AUTHORIZE the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the Contribution Agreement; and

iv)    AUTHORIZE the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, or their written designate, to approve and execute amending agreements to the Contribution Agreement;

it being noted that the Contribution Agreement for the War Memorial building under development by Indwell Community Homes in the Vision SOHO Alliance project was amended to include funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund and the agreement conditions associated with a highly supportive housing project under the previously granted delegated authority.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

7.   Motions of Which Notice is Given

None.

8.   Reports

None.

9.   Added Reports

None.

10.   Deferred Matters

None.

11.   Enquiries

None.

12.   Emergent Motions

None.

13.   By-laws

Motion made by S. Lehman

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That Introduction and First Reading of Bill No.’s 248 and 249 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

Motion made by S. Lehman

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That Second Reading of Bill No.’s 248 and 249 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

Motion made by S. Lehman

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That Third Reading and Enactment of Bill No.’s 248 and 249 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

14.   Adjournment

Motion made by S. Lewis

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM.

Appendix: New Bills

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (36 minutes)

[13:33] Okay, thank you, please be seated. I appreciate colleagues accommodating me, arriving just in time.

[21:25] I was at the announcement for London hosting the Special Olympics, Ontario, which will be quite exciting for the city for next year, but that involves some just-in-time delivery. So I’m happy to call this special meeting of council to order, as a reminder, a special meeting is just one agenda item here that we’re only meeting on the matter, which we’re considering before us today, but I will go through the formal opening of council. We acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lenny Paywalk, and out of one, drawn peoples.

[22:00] We honor to respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. We acknowledge all of the treaties that are specific to this area. The two-row Wampum Belt Treaty of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, several coming in chain. Beaver hunting grounds of the Haudenosaunee and Fan Treaty of 1701, the McKee Treaty of 1790, London Township Treaty of 1796, the Huron Track Treaty of 1827 with the Anishinaabek and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum of the Anishinaabek and the Haudenosaunee. Three indigenous nations that are neighbors to Lenny, the Chippewaas, the Thames First Nation, Oneida Nation of the Thames and the Muncie Delaware Nation who all continue to live as sovereign nations with individual and unique languages, cultures, and customs.

[22:40] The City of London is also committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meeting spawn requests. To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact Council Agenda at London.ca 519-661-2489, extension 2425. With that, we’re just gonna play the National Anthem so we don’t have a singer today, just ‘cause it’s a special meeting, but if you’d rise and join me in the playing of the National Anthem. Thank you, please receive it.

[24:42] This closure is a pecuniary interest. I’ll look at the see-through area. Seeing none in chambers, seeing any online? Nope, seeing none online. Recognitions, we have none, a special meeting. There are no review of conference matters to be considered in public. There’s no enclosed session. There’s no minutes for this meeting, communications and petitions. We have the communications from our staff on the highly supportive housing contribution agreement for Indoorwell Community Homes Development at 346 South Street London.

[25:21] This is the item for which we’re meeting today. Okay, and we can deal with this right in communications. So, I’ll look for a mover and a seconder to put it on the floor. Councillor McAllister, seconded by Councillor Cuddy. I’m going to then speak first, just to provide some context on why I call the special meeting for this item. So I’ll turn the chair over to Deputy Mayor Lewis. Thank you, Your Worship. I will take the chair and I recognize Mayor Morgan. Yes, so I call the special meeting for this because there’s a timeliness to the matter.

[26:00] First off, I want to thank and commend Indoorwell for their continued partnership on housing, including our highly supportive housing projects. And as a critical partner in the Vision SoHo project, what you’re doing for that part of our city and of course for the community at large by helping those who need it most, I think is transformative for our community. The contribution agreement is something under the roadmap to 3,000 funds were allocated and available to Indoorwell for this. Given Council’s previous direction to say that they wished to see the transition of affordable housing projects to highly supportive housing, I called a special meeting to ensure that we could have this matter before Council in a timely manner.

[26:43] The reason why is because without Council’s support on highly supportive housing agreement, our staff cannot sign the support and contribution letter for Indoorwell, which is a requirement that they need to access CMHC funding, which is critical for the project. The reason why that is important is we know that the federal budget is not until the fall. CMHC has a limited number of funds, although they’re before they be recapitalized through a future federal budget. And so it is important for us to get the contribution agreement in and signed to Indoorwell so that they can complete their application to CMHC so that they can access needed and required funds for this project from CMHC.

[27:26] So the timeliness of this is to ensure that CMHC funds are available, that we do not delay the project into the fall while we wait for any federal budget should, and I’m not saying they will, but should CMHC run out of funds because it’s essentially a first come, first serve basis on the funding envelopes that they have authorized through previous federal budgets. So that’s why I called the special meeting and brought this before you with some level of urgency. We certainly have the ability to have a full discussion and a full debate on the matter and our staff are well prepared to answer any questions colleagues have, but I strongly encourage you to address the matter today so that we can put ourselves in the best position to maximize the amount of funding available to Indoorwell and Vision SoHo for this particular project.

[28:06] Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Morgan. I will return the chair to you. I have no one else on the speakers list. All right, I’ll look for any other speakers for this matter. Go ahead, Councillor Pribble. Thank you, Mr. Chair, to the staff. I do have few questions. I would like to start with the, in October 2021, there was the road map to 3,000 affordable units, and it stated the cost $1 billion, and it stated 350 to 400 costs per unit. Councillor, is this still an accurate figure?

[28:44] Go ahead, Mr. Felbert. Thank you and to you, Mr. Chair. So yes, last June, we brought a report forward with an economic analysis of the per unit cost in London. We identified between 400 and about $420,000 a unit to construct a new unit within our city. The billion dollars is a rough estimate, and basically includes all of the construction costs for us to build new housing within the city. I would say that’s fairly accurate. We could actually be higher now with some of the other economic factors out there.

[29:20] Go ahead, Councillor. Thank you for that follow up. It does state that, of course, we cannot do it on our own. We need to help from higher levels of government. Do we look at the projects that we have been doing, or we have done in terms of the percentages so far to commitment, let’s say, X million of dollars and 10% is city and 90% are the other sources. Do we ever do this in terms of the percentages? Mr. Felbert. Through you, Mr. Chair, absolutely.

[29:53] When we look at this, we look at the total cost of construction for a project. So a project might be 15, $20 million. Our contribution is actually a very small portion of that. So we do rely very, very heavily on receiving financing from programs like the Affordable Housing Fund through CMHC, or in this case, the Rapid Housing Initiative, which is not to be confused with the previous one that helped us build a Sylvan based on in Thompson. But absolutely, it’s a very small portion. It probably is in that 10 to 25% range. Go ahead, Councillor Peril.

[30:27] Thank you for that. And again, through the Chair, just that in the current implementation plan update which we just received, it stays 2,139 units. I just want to verify if these units are including or if they would be on top of this number. And by the way, through the implementation plan, it makes it very easy for me to find out and the RFPs and projected awards makes it really simple. So thank you for that implementation plan update. And if someone can answer the question about two months, three, nine things.

[31:01] Go ahead, Mr. Felbert. Thank you, through you, Mr. Chair. So the implementation plan you’re referring to, I think is the Housing Stability Action Plan. It went to community and protective services this cycle. So the 2,100 units that are in there identified as affordable are projects that we have been supporting since way back in 2008, even 2004, through programs from the provincial and federal government. So these units would be in addition to that. I’d have to look at the specifics to see where and when we counted them. But yeah, they would be part of something that we are achieving through the affordable housing programs.

[31:37] Councilor Pribble. And I think I have a last question. And I know in the multi-year budget, in the P12, there’s the allocation of $10 million. And my question is if for these roadmaps 3,000 for the four years, if this is the only amount associated with this initiative, the $10 million, are there initial funds available? Mr. Felbert. Through you, Mr. Chair. So the 10 million in P12 that was approved was very specific for us to be able to make strategic land purchases. So we use that to buy the recent Fairmont School would be a good example of that.

[32:15] In additional funds that we’ve applied to the roadmap program, so there was a $10 million amount from the Housing Accelerator Fund. That was in our roadmap 2.0 report last July, where we identified adding that to our capital, bringing our total capital up to $88 million for the roadmap program. And then we also have the 10 million for the highly supportive housing plan, which is not specifically roadmap, but is designed to match the roadmap programs. And now with this final amount, the $100,000 that you see in table two of this report, that takes us to the end of the half money for the highly supportive housing.

[32:56] Thank you for that. And the last question, I know there’s a commitment to be looking at $3 million for $3 million. And we have still year and a half left in the, or sometime left in the current budget. If other opportunities arise, how much money would we have left for such initiatives such as this one? Mr. Felberg. Through you, Mr. Chair. So great question. I actually can’t believe I didn’t ask finance for the exact budget amount where we’re at right now, prior to me, but I can circle back with you and identify exactly how much is remaining in the roadmap.

[33:32] But we do have our CIP program, which we’ve identified attributed a $20 million budget to that program in order for us to be able to support projects just like these ones or the ones that we had approved last council cycle at places like 195 Dufferin or Warner Place. We also have our shovel ready program where we are going out and developing new land. So the Duluth project, for example, where we’re bringing on new lots and blocks in that new subdivision, but also the Fairmont project. So there are many opportunities coming forward.

[34:07] We’re also working with our Realty folks to identify any surplus city lands that we can bring forward into the future to be able to support this kind of work and our overall roadmap goals and council’s vision to bring more units to the city. Councillor Pribble. So thank you for that. I will certainly be supporting this great initiative. But if I could please get a number of the units and also the balance of the budget potentially for other initiatives. Thank you. All right, thanks, other speakers to this. Okay, seeing none, this is moved and seconded.

[34:44] You have the staff report. I will open that for voting. Votes, yes. Councilor ramen votes yes. Sorry, I can’t get into e-scribe. Thank you, both are noted. Closing the vote. Motion carries 13-0. Okay, that completes communications and petitions. We have no motions for which notice is given. No reports, no added reports, no deferred matters. Inquiries would have to be related to this item. I assume they’re none, okay.

[35:17] No emergency motions. So we’re on to bylaws. There’s just two bylaws, the regular confirming bylaw and the bylaw associated with the contribution agreement that we just all supported. I’m gonna look for movers and seconders for those. I’ll look to Councillor Layman and Councillor Hopkins to do all three readings together. And we’ll open first reading for voting. Councillor Liu is excitedly looking for a German already signed out of e-scribe. So I’ll vote yes. Thank you, voting yes.

[35:49] Councilor voting. Councilor voting yes. Thank you, closing the vote. Motion carries 13-0. Great, only two more times. So same mover and seconder. We’re on second reading, any debate or discussion on second reading. Seeing none, we’ll open second reading for voting. Councilor Liu is voting yes. Councillor Ramen votes yes. Councillor Trosto votes yes. Closing the vote, motion carries 13-0. And third and final reading. The reading, same mover and seconder.

[36:21] We’ll open that for voting. And Councillor Liu is voting yes. Councillor Ramen votes yes. And Councillor Trosto votes yes. Thank you, closing the vote, motion carries 13-0. Okay, that concludes by-laws, thank you very much. I just need a motion to adjourn. Deputy Mayor Lewis, seconded by Councillor Cuddy. All those in favor of adjournment by hand. That motion carries. Thank you very much, a 20-minute meeting.