City of Kitchener completes all 44 actions in its Housing for All strategy
Kitchener, Ontario – The City of Kitchener has completed or substantially completed all 44 of the actions outlined in its Housing for All strategy, staff reported to Kitchener’s Planning and Strategic Initiatives committee on Monday. The completion of the Housing for All strategy represents a significant milestone in the City of Kitchener’s ongoing efforts to ensure that every resident has a home to call their own. In their report, staff emphasized that the Housing for All strategy was a key early component in the city’s broader Building Kitchener Together initiative, which is encouraging the construction of more homes across the entire housing continuum.
The Housing for All strategy was aimed at increasing housing options across the housing continuum, from supportive housing to market home ownership and everything in between. The 44 specific actions in the strategy were grouped by priority:
Priority 1: Human rights-based approach to housing
Priority 2: Commitment to lived experience collaboration
Priority 3: Help end homelessness
Priority 4: Help secure community, affordable rental and affordable ownership housing
Priority 5: Advocacy
Priority 6: Align policies, processes and use of city land to facilitate more affordable housing
Priority 7: Fill data gaps and establish effective monitoring and accountability mechanisms
“I’m so pleased by the work that has been accomplished by our community that was originally recommended by our Housing for All Strategy steering committee,” said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “It goes without saying that these 40 actions have demonstrated important steps forward in our long journey, and as I look over these actions, I see that staff and council in partnership with the community have been busy working, planning, collaborating and advocating for the housing needs of our community. I look forward to continuing to work with staff, council, community partners and other orders of government to see further progress in our Building Kitchener Together priorities in the coming months and years.”
A few examples of the 44 actions completed through the plan include:
Provided parcels of city-owned land to local non-profits for affordable housing on three sites throughout the city.
Worked with the Region of Waterloo and not-for-profit housing operators to support the development of 184 units of supportive housing in Kitchener, and another 128 that are still in development.
Waived development fees for non-profits and introduced a not-for-profit affordable rental and co-op housing incentive grant that will distribute $5.2 million in seed funding grants for non-market housing development
Implemented policies and new bylaws that will support lower-cost housing options and affordable housing projects such as inclusionary zoning, a lodging house bylaw and a rental replacement bylaw.
Established a Lived Expertise Working Group, ensuring that individuals with first-hand experience of housing precarity and homelessness could advise and inform policy decisions.
“The approach taken with the Housing for All strategy is truly innovative for an area municipality,” said Planning and Strategic Initiatives Chair and Ward 6 Councillor Paul Singh. “I’m proud to see how we’ve used our available policy tools, resources and staff to make such significant inroads. Much of the strategy speaks to how we must continue to advocate for Kitchener’s housing needs, and we’ll continue to do precisely that.”
More information about the Housing for All strategy can be found on the project’s web page. More information about Building Kitchener together can be found here.
For more information:
Phil Price
Communications and Marketing Associate
City of Kitchener
philp.price@kitchener.ca
Nasreen
Strategic Communications Officer
Office of the Mayor and Council
City of Kitchener
(M) - 226-753-6082
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