10-28-2020, 04:08 PM
There are somewhere around 5,000 people on the waiting list for affordable housing. Now, not all of them are homeless: some of them may have housing that is too small, or too expensive. But, even so, it will be a long list. However, 40-50 (my guess) is not all that is being built. The region has multiple affordable-housing projects under way, so the number of new units will be significantly higher.
The region's official plan targets 16% affordable units of the total built, and an average of about 600 affordable units per year. I suspect we are not reaching that number at the moment, but I don't have any data handy. The plan is here:
https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/livin...ousing.PDF
As for changing the policy, the federal government doesn't have authority over housing. That's a provincial responsibility, and largely delegated to municipalities. Requiring a minim percentage of affordable units would need to be done through zoning bylaws.
Better yet, I would suggest driving that through property tax differentials: the greater the percentage of affordable units, the lower the taxes. Buildings with no affordable units (both multi-residential and SFH) would attract higher taxes (and development fees) than today, while buildings that are completely affordable could have either zero or very low property taxes. While this in itself would not be enough to resolve the shortage, it would help, and it's far quicker than redoing all the zoning bylaws.
The region's official plan targets 16% affordable units of the total built, and an average of about 600 affordable units per year. I suspect we are not reaching that number at the moment, but I don't have any data handy. The plan is here:
https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/livin...ousing.PDF
As for changing the policy, the federal government doesn't have authority over housing. That's a provincial responsibility, and largely delegated to municipalities. Requiring a minim percentage of affordable units would need to be done through zoning bylaws.
Better yet, I would suggest driving that through property tax differentials: the greater the percentage of affordable units, the lower the taxes. Buildings with no affordable units (both multi-residential and SFH) would attract higher taxes (and development fees) than today, while buildings that are completely affordable could have either zero or very low property taxes. While this in itself would not be enough to resolve the shortage, it would help, and it's far quicker than redoing all the zoning bylaws.