Planning for affordable housing

This Strategic Story is just one example of how the City of Waterloo 2023-2026 Strategic Plan and community feedback helped inform the 2024-2026 staff tabled budget.

Complete Community:

Affordable housing is viewed as the top challenge that we need to address.

What we heard

When residents shared their vision for the future of Waterloo, common themes included:

The biggest initiative should be promotion of policies for affordable housing implementation.

Build housing that is affordable to the poor, the working class and the lower middle class. More housing is not the same as affordable housing.

Offer economic incentives to developers to deliver on affordable housing.

Why it's important

When we asked the community about their vision for the future of Waterloo and the barriers we need to address, affordable housing was viewed as the top challenge. The housing crisis requires all levels of government to work together on solutions. We need to do our part, and implement our Affordable Housing Strategy to promote the supply and mix of affordable housing. This includes collaboration with area municipalities and community partners on housing initiatives that are critical for our future.

What we're doing

With budget adoption, we’ll have more resources available to implement our affordable housing objectives. We’ll advance the City’s Affordable Housing Strategy, planning for and promoting a greater supply and mix of housing, aiming to prioritize non-market (subsidized) and temporary housing, and optimize the use of existing housing to protect the affordable housing supply. We’ll look to provide incentives to build affordable housing, and expand City and community capacity, awareness and supports for affordable housing. We’ll support the Region’s housing initiatives, respond to provincial legislation and policies, and monitor and research trends to identify other incentives for affordable and attainable housing. We will encourage the development industry to seek opportunities to construct thoughtfully designed, affordable, and accessible units. We’ll continue to seek grant funding opportunities to help, like our application to the Housing Accelerator Fund in August 2023.

Read more Strategic Stories.