The City of Estevan has set a date for the public consultation meeting they are holding as part of the development of a much-needed housing plan.
In 2012, the City applied for and was accepted into the provincial government's Encouraging Community Housing Options program which was created to help communities and regional partnerships develop a housing plan to understand "housing needs across the entire housing continuum."
The program provides groups with a provincial grant of up to $20,000 to match municipal costs.
An aspect of the program is holding a public meeting in which a number of groups can speak on the housing issues in a given community. The local meeting will be held April 5, most likely at the Estevan Leisure Centre.
City manager Jim Puffalt said a list of invitees has been created, all of whom are directly involved in a facet of the housing industry.
"They asked us to identify a list of people that are interested in housing. I believe we will also have an open invitation to people that just want to attend," Puffalt said. "They want to get information specific to Estevan as far as issues some people are seeing, some of the work that the Estevan Ministerial Association has done and some of the work that other groups have done. They want to get a handle on what has been happening and what is needed for the future."
The meeting is the latest in a long line of meetings that have been held on the lack of housing in Estevan, particularly affordable housing. However the majority of those meetings failed to produce anything resembling progress and the local situation has worsened.
Puffalt said he is confident the housing plan they are currently working on will produce tangible results that will allow the City to move forward and come up with some actual solutions.
"The whole intent of the ECHO grant is to have a housing plan put together and make sure that we have an idea of how many multi-family (residences) we need, condos and single family; how many units are needed in the city," he said. "It will give us plans, objectives and measurables to try and get those units put together.
"If it says we need to have 1,000 rental units, we have to look at our existing programs, developers, land and see how we can get to 1,000 units."
Puffalt added that at this point, the province has only signed on to fund the ECHO study and nothing beyond. But the study could be useful in helping the City and developers go after available programs and funding.
"When we go back to the province, (the plan) gives us a unique opportunity to say to the province that we are unique in the province and we need a plan and funding that meets these needs and meets these deficiencies in the city."
