Increasing housing choice and diversity

WATCH | Learn how we are working to provide all the kinds of housing our community needs

 

Adequate, affordable and appropriate housing is critical to a community’s success. We play a significant role in meeting the housing needs of residents by regulating the location, amount, type, and density of housing built by private companies, non-profit organizations, and other levels of government.

Providing homes for everyone

Our Official Community Plan (OCP) anticipates that an additional 20,000 people will live in the District by 2030.

To accommodate the needs of these new residents — while addressing the existing demand for accessible, safe, and affordable housing — we have clarified and structured the District's housing objectives by developing a tool called a 'housing continuum.'

A closer look at the housing continuum

Housing continuum in the District. From top to bottom: supportive, social, rental, ownershipA housing continuum shows all the kinds of housing that our community needs, from subsidized emergency and supportive housing, to single family home ownership.

The more balanced a community’s housing continuum, the more options people have for finding appropriate housing at all stages of life, and as their needs change over time.

We need housing that works for young people just starting out, families with kids, empty-nesters, seniors, and employers and their staff who work on the North Shore.

A healthy and diverse range of housing options will improve affordability throughout the entire housing continuum, and will lead to a more vibrant, inclusive, diverse, and well functioning community.

Non-market housing on the continuum

The top half of the continuum shows different kinds of non-market housing.

That’s housing that requires a subsidy of any kind, such as shelters, safe houses, facilities that support people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction, and subsidized rental housing for low to moderate income earners.

Market housing on the continuum

The bottom half of the continuum shows different kinds of market housing.

That’s housing that’s not subsidized and includes everything from studio apartments to large single family houses

The higher density types of housing, such as condos, are being located in our town and village centres to enable people to walk to services, work, and school, and to easily access frequent service transit, which is made economically viable through the critical mass of people, and the co-location of residential, employment and commercial space.

Learn how we're working to provide housing across the continuum

We have established a host of policies, strategies, bylaws, and action items to achieve the community goals for housing. Review our Rental and Affordable Housing Strategy to see how we're increasing homes for low and moderate income community members.

 

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