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Affordable Housing Strategy

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The supply of affordable housing in Waterloo has not kept pace with demand. Over the past few decades, housing prices and rents have increased substantially faster than incomes, creating affordability challenges for many Waterloo households. The impact of reduced affordability can be seen region-wide in increased homelessness and a growing community housing waitlist and longer wait times. Populations most affected by the gap between income and housing costs include older adults, Indigenous peoples, new Canadians, single parent households, and individuals experiencing mental health challenges and/or addictions. Increasingly, young adults and moderate income earners are also finding it challenging to secure housing that they can afford.

To address the growing problem of housing affordability, the City of Waterloo is developing an Affordable Housing Strategy. The strategy will identify actions to be undertaken by the City to protect the existing affordable housing stock and to increase the supply of new affordable housing in the City. The strategy will consider approaches to address affordability challenges for low and moderate income households, and options to ensure a sustainable supply of a diverse range of housing types, sizes and tenures (i.e. ownership or rental housing).

Check out our latest research and recommendations in the documents section on the right side of the page. You can leave a comment at anytime if you have ideas or suggestions about affordable housing.

The supply of affordable housing in Waterloo has not kept pace with demand. Over the past few decades, housing prices and rents have increased substantially faster than incomes, creating affordability challenges for many Waterloo households. The impact of reduced affordability can be seen region-wide in increased homelessness and a growing community housing waitlist and longer wait times. Populations most affected by the gap between income and housing costs include older adults, Indigenous peoples, new Canadians, single parent households, and individuals experiencing mental health challenges and/or addictions. Increasingly, young adults and moderate income earners are also finding it challenging to secure housing that they can afford.

To address the growing problem of housing affordability, the City of Waterloo is developing an Affordable Housing Strategy. The strategy will identify actions to be undertaken by the City to protect the existing affordable housing stock and to increase the supply of new affordable housing in the City. The strategy will consider approaches to address affordability challenges for low and moderate income households, and options to ensure a sustainable supply of a diverse range of housing types, sizes and tenures (i.e. ownership or rental housing).

Check out our latest research and recommendations in the documents section on the right side of the page. You can leave a comment at anytime if you have ideas or suggestions about affordable housing.

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Where should new housing go?

about 3 years

New housing in the City of Waterloo is mainly planned to go in in nodes, corridors, and Major Transit Station Areas as identified in orange on the map (you can also zoom in on the map) and greenfield areas (remaining undeveloped areas on the city's periphery that are designated for development). Nodes and corridors are areas along major transportation routes that have been identified to accommodate most of the city’s growth and intensification. Major Transit Station Areas are the areas located around ION stops. 

Are there other areas that you feel should be planned to accommodate more housing? Please let us know where and why by dropping a pin on the map and providing a comment. You can zoom in by double-clicking on an area of the map (or by using the zoom buttons in the bottom right-hand corner). Click the plus sign in the menu to drop a pin. You can drop more than one pin to indicate more than one area.

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Page last updated: 28 Apr 2024, 11:44 AM