City council approves new 'gamechanger' housing strategy for Calgary
CBC
Calgarians now have a clearer idea of what a housing strategy for the city will look like for the next six years.
City council voted 12-3 in favour of a new plan for housing Saturday night, after a marathon three-day committee meeting where 162 residents shared their concerns about this city's housing crisis,
The strategy, adopted with amendments, includes an incentive program to create new secondary suites, plans to dispose of city land for new housing units and adopting new zoning rules to allow rowhouses and duplexes anywhere in the city.
It's intended to help Calgary move toward increasing the supply of market and non-market housing in order to meet demand and improve affordability.
"This is the permission to solve the problem, that's what we did here today," said Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott.
"Administration has it, council has given it. the public can expect it from us. It's a big change."
Amendments made to the strategy call for the City to find two parcels of land which can be used for pre-fabricated housing to help families facing homelessness this winter.
The city also plans to invest $25 million into post-secondary student housing.
In approving the strategy, Walcott said, the city can now begin attacking the housing crisis which has left many people scrambling to find a place to live or struggling to afford to keep a roof over their head.
In a social media post 10 days ago, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the meeting that was triggered by a rise in housing prices that has left many unable to find options for housing.
"We are in a housing crisis in Calgary. I have called a special meeting of council for 1 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2023 to take swift action," she wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"Compared to 2021, average market rent is [up] 40 per cent with vacancy at three per cent. Median home prices for single detached [up] 37 per cent. The time to act is now."
According to the Housing Needs Assessment report released by the City of Calgary in September, one in five households in Calgary struggled to afford housing costs in 2021, meaning that around 84,600 households were forced to shell out more than 30 per cent of their total income on housing.
The report added that the situation is probably worse in 2023 with more households feeling the brunt of the housing crisis.
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