Medicine Hat’s housing and downtown upgrade incentives gain momentum

The initiatives are funded by money left over from the $5.1 million set aside by council for incentives five years ago. The remaining $1.4 million are being used for the 2024 initiatives.

The Housing Infill and Redevelopment incentive aims to tackle a housing crisis that has left it nearly impossible for many to find a place to live by injecting fresh cash into new projects.

To achieve that, the programs aim to leverage the existing spaces and infrastructure the city already has to build more high-density housing through a $15,000 grant per dwelling unit, up to a maximum of $750,000.

“In January 2023, we had 400 houses on the market. In January 2024, we had 100,” McLean-Moore said. This has a direct contribution to the one per cent vacancy rate Medicine Hat is suffering from.

McLean-Moore said that tackling the housing crisis was at the forefront of planning for the incentive program, but said the problem won’t be solved overnight.

Selena McLean-Moore, director of the city’s economic development organization, speaks to CHAT News. (Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News)

“We have created these incentives to hopefully stimulate the multi-family dwelling, the building of multi-family dwellings to hopefully get more houses built quickly, but it is going to take time,” McLean-Moore said.

“There’s a process developers have to go through in order to get that done we’re hoping that this will hopefully incent those developers to build the type of housing that we need,” she added.

The application period for the housing infill initiative ends on May 15. There will be an evaluation and approval period from May 15 to June 1.

Medicine Hat Economic Development’s second new incentive for 2024 has the goal of cleaning up the downtown core and is already fully subscribed to, according to McLean-Moore.

The City Centre Vibrancy Incentive is designed to provide financial assistance to local business owners to incentivize the improvement and upgrading of properties downtown.

Owners of commercial properties within the designated area can apply and may be eligible for up to 50 percent matching incentive, with a maximum of $25,000.

The programs will not be first-come-first-serve. An application process is underway and the city will then evaluate candidates and provide funding based on specific criteria.

Part of the economic development plan has allowed current residents to apply for a one-time grant of up to $7,500 to help create “tiny-houses” as a backyard suite development.

Four pillars of economic development incentives

Medicine Hat Economic Development worked with four different approaches with different targets:

-Workforce Development Pillar: Supporting workforce needs within the community and ensuring there is workforce for future investment in the city.

-Business Development Pillar: Understanding the businesses within the community and understanding their needs, challenges and what the opportunities to help local business flourish.

-Investment Attraction Pillar and Business and Growth Readiness: Using the information from the Business Development to understand what the opportunities are available to capitalize on what Medicine Hat does well across various industries.

McLean-Moore said that she’s hopeful that Hatters will remain patient as they enter into new territory.

“If we get the number of units that we’re hoping to get from this incentive, I think it’s obviously going to impact the community greatly because we will now have more housing which hopefully will stabilize the rent increase,” she said.

“I think that we are working hard as a department, as a city, for our residents and to be able to make and to continue making Medicine Hat a great place to live.”

McLean-Moore said that there is currently a budget proposal for council to consider new initiatives being tackled in 2025 and 2026.

by Adrian St.Onge, Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat’s housing and downtown upgrade incentives gain momentum

Four pillars of economic development incentives

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