The town of Moosomin is turning heads with its incentives for the construction of new homes. In August they announced the new program, which was possible thanks to $1 million from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.
“Right now, if you build a house in the town of Moosomin, you’ll receive $30,000 from the town, and if you build anything with more than one unit, you’ll receive $30,000 for the first unit, and $8,000 for every unit after that,” explained Casey McCormac. She is the Economic Development Officer for the Town of Moosomin.
The reception has been strong so far, McCormac added. Since the introduction of the program in August, there have been 33 units the town has issued building permits for. How does that compare to previous years?
“I think the year before was maybe three units,” McCormac stated.
The success of the program in Moosomin has been noticed in other communities. While McCormac didn’t mention any specifically, she did say the town has heard from other communities that applied for the same funding but didn’t receive it, as they are getting ready for a second round of applications and want to be prepared.
What advice does McCormac have for those communities?
“I would encourage them to think outside the box because I think that really helped us,” McCormac suggested. “I don’t think any other place that got this funding is doing something like this, and so I think that helped us quite a bit, and I would say just to focus on incentivizing the people that are building the homes.”