LMCH unveils $1B, 15-year plan to regenerate community housing stock

London and Middlesex Community Housing has launched an ambitious Master Regeneration Plan.

London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) has launched an ambitious 2026-2040 Master Regeneration Plan (MRP) that provides a roadmap to renew, redevelop and grow the amount of community housing in its portfolio of 32 properties.

On Thursday, representatives of LMCH presented the plan’s executive summary to council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC).

“This is a 15-year strategy to bring together our approach for asset management, to identify a pipeline and a road map, to continue to increase and improve the affordable housing across London and Middlesex County,” CEO Paul Chisholm explained to CTV News.

LMCH is the largest community housing provider, managing 3,282 rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units across London and Middlesex County.

“Up until last October, we were 100 per cent rent-geared-to-income housing,” Chisholm said.

Some RGI tenants pay less than $100 per month, significantly less than the minimum required to operate and adequately maintain those residential units.

The regeneration plan aims to create mixed-rent communities that offset the financial shortfall created by RGI units with rent generated from affordable housing and market-rent units.

“What we know is that we need to have affordable and market housing in our portfolio to improve our financial sustainability. So we have a vision of replacing some existing RGI units, improving some others, and then increasing our housing stock so our operating revenue is better able to support any debt we require,” Chisholm added.

Coun. Hadleigh McAlister, who sits on the LMCH board, told colleagues on the committee, “We will have RGI units, but we will also have other units which will allow us to be a more financially stable agency. I think that that’s incredibly important is that we have that self-sufficiency.”

However, Coun. Sam Trosow voiced his concern that not enough is being done to repair buildings that received “poor” or “very poor” condition assessments in a report provided to council last year.

“I want to see actionable improvements in the living conditions, the day to day lives of tenants,” he said.

“We’re doing full building condition assessments,” explains Chisholm. “We’re bringing that data into the models we’re using. And we’ve invested another $15-plus million in the state of repair, so we believe when we report back as of December 31, we’ll see significant improvements.”

City staff performed their own assessment of the LMCH Master Regeneration Plan, identifying several risks in a separate report to the committee.

“This plan as outlined will require significant incremental investment, with a total identified proposed investment of more than $300 million over the first 5 years and upwards of $1 billion of investment over the full 15 years of the plan,” the staff report reads.

It adds, “Noting that it’s unlikely that funding will be available for all projects, it is recommended that LMCH consider the priority of the projects on the roster.”

Other concerns identified in the municipal report focus on the regeneration plan’s priorities.

“In the short-term, (diversification with affordable/market units) means that there would be no increase to the number RGI units managed by LMCH,” the report outlined.

In recommends the plan articulate how tenant success will be supported and measured, rather than emphasize financial stability for the agency.

Phil Squire, Chair of the LMCH board addressed some of the concerns when he introduced the MRP to the committee, “We will certainly be very prudent in terms of the money that we’re using and how we apply it and how quickly we move with the plan. Our goal is quite simple, we want to provide better quality housing for our tenants, and along with that, also be financially responsible.”

There are currently over 7,000 households on the affordable housing waitlist, and the average age of LMCH’s housing portfolio is 54 years.

The first five years of the regeneration plan focus on already underway or shovel-ready projects including Reimagine Southdale, redevelopment at Ladybrook, development of a vacant property in Strathroy, and strategic acquisitions.

“We have the federal Build Canada Homes (funding) coming on the horizon,” explains Chisholm. “What we need to do to be successful in garnering investment from other programs is to have shovel-ready projects.”

In June, LMCH will return to city hall for a further discussion about its roadmap to regeneration.