All photos: Town of Smithers
The Town of Smithers celebrated the completion of a multi-family residential development in September 2022. This marks the first privately-initiated development in the community in nearly a decade, which was completed with financial help through Northern Development’s Northern Housing Incentive grant program.
“Thanks to the Northern Housing Incentive Project, the developer of 3030 Pacific Street was able to ensure the affordability of the project, with all 12 units being sold prior to the project’s completion in September 2022,” said Smithers Deputy Mayor Frank Wray. “This new housing is of critical importance, as securing adequate and affordable housing has become an increasingly challenging task in the area in recent years.”
The new homes were eagerly anticipated by area residents, with all 12 units receiving purchase offers well before the project was completed and all being sold by September. The townhouse complex increases housing diversity in the Bulkley Valley and help ease entry into the housing market for first time buyers.
“The development has provided a much-needed market housing option for local residents,” said Deputy Mayor Wray. “The Northern Housing Incentive Project has been a vital step in addressing the pressing need for affordable housing in Smithers and will have a positive impact on the lives of many local residents. The Town of Smithers thanks NDIT and looks forward to working with them on future projects.”
Declining housing affordability has been a long-time concern for the Town of Smithers and with a near-zero vacancy rate, this project helps provide a solution for 12 households. The need for affordable rental housing and affordable home ownership was identified in the Town of Smithers’ Housing Needs Report, which was completed in December 2020 using grant funding from Northern Development’s Housing Needs Assessment program.
Introduced by the Trust as a new funding program in 2019, the Northern Housing Incentive program has committed $620,000 to housing projects in its service region through seven projects. The combined value of all these housing projects is $14 million and they will result in 62 new residences being available in the north.
