Carleton researcher and Ottawa-based housing consultant Steve Pomeroy has designed a new down-payment assistance program for first-time home buyers in Yukon.
The program will provide low-interest loans to those who are struggling to get into the housing market. Successful applicants will receive up to $18,000 to cover up to five percent of the home’s purchase price. The program is open to those with a household income of $90,000 or less. The territory’s adoption of the program was announced in March 2013 by the Hon. Scott Kent, minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corporation.
Pomeroy was first invited to work with the Yukon Housing Corporation after a jump in housing prices prompted public concern about the ability of first-time homebuyers to enter the market.
“The goal was to design a program that would not cause inflation in the housing market but would still address the needs of those trying to enter the market,” he said.
Pomeroy recently joined Carleton’s Centre for Urban Research and Education (CURE) as a research associate, where he will focus on housing and policy analysis. His addition to the Carleton community solidifies an already strong core of Carleton researchers who are focused on housing and urban issues, including CURE Director Chris Stoney, Geography and Environmental Studies Prof. Fran Klodawsky and PhD candidate Nick Falvo.
“My position at Carleton will give me a chance to work with Carleton students who are interested in housing issues,” said Pomeroy. “I’m looking forward to acting as a mentor for people who might want to get into the field.”
“Steve is generally viewed as Canada’s leading authority on affordable housing policy,” said Falvo, who has worked with Pomeroy on papers for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and an upcoming edition of How Ottawa Spends. “Carleton is fortunate to have him as part of its community.”
Pomeroy has more than 30 years of experience in policy research, strategic analysis, program implementation and market research. The substantive focus of much of his work has been housing and urban development. Before holding a variety of senior positions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, he worked as an urban planner and in co-operative housing development.
He is the founding owner of Focus Consulting, and since 1994 he has completed over 130 reports and studies on affordable housing financing, alternative financing models, housing projections, market analysis, socioeconomic analysis, feasibility analysis of rental development, housing need and affordability studies, analysis of homelessness and neighbourhood renewal/regeneration.
In 2007, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches a professional development course on the fundamentals of housing policy and governance. In 2012, Pomeroy received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions in housing research and advancing the policy dialogue on housing issues.
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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations Co-ordinator
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca