|
November 1, 2024
Housing Month kicks off today, giving Edmontonians an opportunity to learn about the need for affordable housing and how the City and its partners are working to meet it.
Housing Month is an annual campaign led by Homeward Trust Edmonton to raise awareness about the need for safe, adequate and affordable housing. Starting November 4, Edmontonians can learn more about affordable and supportive housing and view renderings of new developments coming to Holyrood, Garneau and Canora at a Welcome Homes installation at City Hall. Throughout the month, Homeward Trust will offer tours of supportive housing built in partnership with the City.
Members of the public are invited to free online webinars hosted throughout November by representatives from the City, housing providers and social service organizations. Topics include navigating and applying for seniors housing, community land trusts, building net-zero affordable housing and the range of housing models, from supportive housing to mixed-income housing. The City is also sponsoring an event hosted by the Northern Alberta Co-operative Housing Association exploring community land trusts as a way to create more affordable housing in Edmonton. A full calendar of Housing Month events and registration information can be found here.
“While Housing Month is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the importance of building all types of housing, and doing what we can to support our unhoused neighbours, housing is a priority every day of the year,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. “This Council is investing in housing and making it easier to build the type of housing our city needs, and we are on track to meet and exceed our ambitious goal of an additional 2,700 new or renovated affordable housing units by 2026.”
According to the City’s most recent Housing Needs Assessment, there are fewer than 17,000 units of affordable housing in Edmonton, yet more than 46,000 households are in core housing need, meaning they pay more than 30 per cent of household income on housing costs or live in crowded or unsafe housing, and can’t afford any other options. To help close this gap, the City has committed to investing in affordable housing in all neighbourhoods. Since 2019, the City has invested $254 million in affordable housing to help create 5,553 units, including 916 units of supportive housing.
Affordable housing is offered at subsidized rents for families and households with low incomes, whose housing needs are not being met by the market. The City is also working to increase the supply of housing overall, which can help moderate price growth and keep housing affordable for those earning higher incomes. Some of the steps the City has taken to encourage all types of housing include:
- Eliminating parking minimums and modernizing our zoning bylaw to encourage diverse housing types.
- Opening market and non-market multi-unit housing in nodes (urban centres) and corridors (main streets), on surplus City-owned land, and near transit through targeted rezonings.
- Incentivizing development in priority areas through the Infill Infrastructure fund.
- Boosting overall housing supply growth through the Housing Accelerator Fund action plan.
| 
