Northumberland County Social Housing Needs Assessment Plan

Northumberland County is an amalgamation of seven municipalities near the shores of Lake Ontario, with a population of 90,437. The Northumberland County Housing Corporation owns and manages 344 social housing units across 14 properties that range from 38-50 years old. For this initiative, Northumberland will conduct retrofit needs assessments on 13 of its properties. CMHC Preservation Funding for Community Housing will cover the needs assessments on six of the properties, while FCM funds will help pay for needs assessments on the remaining seven. Audits will cover building conditioning, capital reserve forecasts, elevator/lift capacity, energy and accessibility (the latter in accordance with the Age-Friendly Communities/Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act). Northumberland will aim for a minimum 25% reduction in building energy consumption. Beyond energy savings, the organization intends to incorporate sustainably sourced materials, climate mitigation/adaptation measures, water conservation and waste reduction in the next stages of the project. Innovative aspect(s): Northumberland County is assessing retrofit needs for its entire portfolio at once, managing costs by bundling the audits over several properties. Replicability: Bundled needs assessments provide the necessary evidence to set priorities across a large portfolio of aging housing. The successes or challenges of this approach could be informative for other housing providers with large portfolios across the country. Affordability: 100% of the units in this portfolio are below 80% of the region’s MMR. Northumberland subsidizes all its units through a Rent-Geared-to-Income program. (Project description from original funding application)