What do we mean by affordable housing? There are many, many definitions. Generally, housing is considered affordable when a household pays no more than 30% of their before-tax income on housing costs. Although there are challenges with this definition, it is considered the international standard.
Why do we have a housing crisis? There are intersecting issues that have led us to where we are today. In Canada, we currently have the lowest housing supply per capita when compared to other G7 countries. Housing and homelessness issues are a direct result of the federal government pulling out of social housing in the 1990s.
Between 1974 and 1994, Canada built 16,000 non-profit homes each year. Between 1994 and 2016, we built 1,500 a year. And for every one unit funded by the National Housing Strategy since 2016, 15 units are lost.
So, What Can Planners Do?
We can work with communities to embed affordability within guiding plans and policy documents. Affordability is a key component of a healthy, complete community.
We can conduct research and analysis on behalf of communities to clearly identify housing and homelessness needs and gaps.
We can engage with communities to uncover specific housing needs and work with technical experts to design innovative housing models.
We can facilitate meaningful discussions across sectors to help break down silos. All sectors are impacted by the current housing and homelessness crisis. We need to leverage cross-sectoral partnerships and technical expertise. No one sector can solve these issues alone, but planners are uniquely situated to balance between sectors, bringing ideas and people together to create pathways for affordable housing development.
We can provide planning and development services to the non-profit sector.
We can work with communities to identify underutilized lands, prepare these lands for development, and incentivize affordable housing development on these sites.
We can recommend that communities reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing development. This could include providing for higher densities in most zoning districts and increasing as-of-right multi-family housing.
We can recommend that municipalities reduce parking requirements for affordable housing projects.
We can assist communities and non-profit organizations to navigate the complex world of affordable housing funding streams.
Finally, we need to focus on the solutions, not the challenges. It’s all too easy to become overwhelmed by wicked problems like the lack of affordable housing and homelessness. But as planners, we need to shift the narrative and focus on tangible solutions, like those listed above, and eventually these solutions will result in new affordable homes in our communities.
As planners, we can use our industry knowledge and expertise to work with communities to understand how best to address their affordable housing needs.
Lauren Lange is a Senior Planner with WSP in Canada.
