$96 million in new federal housing funding announced for City of Surrey

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The City of Surrey is now the fourth city in British Columbia to receive a share of the federal government’s $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

In exchange for overhauling and simplifying its policies to catalyze and expedite more housing, the federal government announced today it is providing Surrey’s municipal government with $95.6 million. It is expected this will fast-track the construction of 2,800 homes over the next three years, and a total of 16,500 new homes over the coming decade.

The municipal government will change its zoning to support higher-density residential developments, including more transit-oriented development opportunities, as well as improve its processes for reviewing and approving applications for development and building permits.

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“The City is working on a number of initiatives to increase housing supply that will benefit from this funding, including helping support below-market and affordable rental housing projects. We are also adjusting our zoning to increase housing density, especially around rapid transit lines. Surrey is a leader in the region in supplying affordable housing and we will now expand further on this success thanks to this funding support,” said Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke in a statement.

Randeep Sarai, the MP for Surrey Centre, added, “The Housing Accelerator Fund is an acknowledgement that the status quo in how we build homes is no longer acceptable. By working together, collaboratively with the City of Surrey and our government we’re going to get more homes built for British Columbians.”

To be considered to receive a portion of the $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund, municipal governments need to apply and pledge that they will grow the housing supply faster than their historical average, increase densification, encourage transit-oriented development, speed up approval times, and reduce red tape.

In December 2023, the federal government announced Housing Accelerator Fund allocations of $115 million to the City of Vancouver and $43 million to the City of Burnaby.

To date, a combined total of over $253 million has been allocated to Metro Vancouver cities.

Other HAF recipients so far include Kelowna with $31.5 million, Calgary with $228 million, $471 million to Toronto, Mississauga with $113 million, Brampton with $114 million, London with $74 million, $59 million to Vaughan, $93.5 million to Hamilton, $79 million to Halifax, $15.5 million to Moncton, and $900 million to the Government of Quebec.

Through HAF, the federal government is aiming to expedite at least 100,000 new homes over the next three years, and 250,000 new homes over 10 years.

The allocation to Surrey follows a disagreement between the federal government and Metro Vancouver Regional District last fall, with the former delaying the HAF announcements for cities such as Burnaby and Surrey due to the impasse over the regional district’s new Development Cost Charges (DCCs) on new housing. Municipal politicians on the board of directors for the regional district sided with the federal government’s position but were unable to push for a majority decision to delay the implementation of the DCCs.

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