The City of Guelph, Ont., has created a new housing strategy to increase more affordable homes in the future.
At a city council meeting on Tuesday, staff approved the Housing Affordability Strategy.
Tara Baker, chief administrative officer, said the housing crisis is happening across Canada, including in Guelph.
“Our Housing Affordability Strategy is one part of helping address this crisis. By working with others to bring more affordable homes to Guelph, we can help residents access housing that meets their needs,” Baker said in a news release on Wednesday.
The release goes on to say that the strategy outlines more than two dozen actions that the city can take to improve affordable housing but monitor its progress over time as well.
Multiple steps are outlined in the strategy to help bring more affordable units to the Royal City, including aiming to lower building affordable home costs through incentive programs and exemptions and to create and promote flexible development policies.
It is expected to guide the city’s actions to improve housing affordability over the next decade. By the year 2051, the Royal City is expected to grow to 208,000 residents and have 116,000 jobs.
The city said it’ll need over 29,000 more homes to support this growth, 8,700 of which that need to be affordable units.
It’s among the eight commitments included the city’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) action plan to fast-track the creation of new housing units. Another commitment that was approved at the same meeting was allowing up to four units on a property, an amendment to the official plan and zoning bylaw.