City council approves new 'gamechanger' housing strategy for Calgary

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 the 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 row houses 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.  

Tackling a crisis

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.

The assessment — published once every five years — focuses on affordable housing strategies and helps the city collaborate with housing providers and the government. 

Not all in favour

While Ward 13. Coun. Dan McLean is in favour of building more affordable housing for Calgarians, he said this is not the way to do it,

"I support a lot of the initiatives in that strategy," he said.

"But my residents were clear, a lot of Calgarians were clear that they were vehemently opposed to blanket upzoning."

A contentious part of the strategy, upzoning all areas of the city to allow for duplexes and row houses will be subject to an amendment of the land use bylaw.

"I'm glad it's coming up to some more debate and more hearings," McLean said.. 

"If this passes, what it does is it actually removes a lot of public input from city residents and City Council as a whole"

Federal funds

In a letter sent to Gondek earlier this week, federal Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser said the city's Housing Accelerator Fund application will not be approved if it doesn't legalize new missing-middle zoning designations.

"[I]n order to receive a positive decision from me on your application — you must end exclusionary zoning in your city," the letter reads.  

Missing-middle often refers to buildings such as mid-rise apartments duplexes and row houses, which can increase density.

His comments echo in part the position of Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre, who has called on local politicians to remove barriers to building more housing.

A key difference, however, is Poilievre says he would tie federal infrastructure funding to housing starts. Under his proposal, cities would have to increase the number of homes built by 15 per cent each year.

The changes regarding rezoning would redesignate portions of land to address the missing-middle and allow for those types of buildings.

"I have every confidence that the application that we submitted to the federal government will get approval," Gondek said following the special council meeting.

"It remains to be seen how much funding we will get and once I have the ability to disclose any of that, I certainly will," she said.

The strategy will need funding allocated in the upcoming November budget debate and bylaw amendments next year which will require public hearings.

Administration officials said the housing strategy will cost Calgarians a total of $57.5 million in one-time costs, $27 million in annual costs and $10 million capital costs per year going forward.