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City of Edmonton making progress on a home for everyone¶
Posted by Michael Janz on September 27, 2024
I've seen a lot of polls lately that show the top issue for Canadians, Albertans, and Edmontonians is some variation of housing, affordable housing, or affordability. We are all paying too much and supply has not been keeping up with demand.
I was pleased to see the Globe and Mail Editorial Board as well as the CMHC put out favorable reports this week that Edmonton is a leader in building a home for everyone. This isn't just new market housing, but also non-market and affordable housing too. You or someone you love may need a new home soon, and a supply shortage helps landlords not renters, especially in a time of rapid population growth (Edmonton is growing 5% per year and we're at 1.15 million people).
Legalizing more housing choices for all ages, wages, and stages of life improves affordability and if built "in not out" reduces our carbon footprint.¶
Learn more at michaeljanz.ca/housing¶
If you haven't seen it already, I thought you would appreciate my video about using suburban retrofit to provide housing in old surplus big box store locations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtuOKLI9ef8
I also found this video about how even new buildings (sometimes called "luxury housing") can also contribute to solving the housing crisis quite provocative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQAr3K57WQ
I was also pleased that City Council passed unanimously my motion on building "single stair" or point access blocks, a move recently adopted by BC Premier David Eby and has worked for centuries in Europe: https://edmonton.taproot.news/news/2024/09/26/developers-urge-edmonton-to-follow-bc-example-on-single-egress-buildings
Here's the release below including the third party validated information from the CMHC:
City of Edmonton making progress on a home for everyone
September 26, 2024
Edmonton is on track to see a record number of housing starts and residential units with approved building permits issued in 2024.
From January 1 to August 31, housing starts are up 48 per cent and the number of dwelling units with approved building permits is up 65 per cent over the same eight-month period in 2023.
The number of units with approved building permits to date in 2024 has already surpassed the number through all of 2023, and is on track to beat Edmonton's all-time record, set in 2015. These figures, along with growth trends show a shift towards a more diverse housing supply and demonstrate how the City is making progress toward the housing targets set out in our Housing Accelerator Fund action plan.
"I'm very optimistic that we are beginning to see positive outcomes from several initiatives that make it easier, faster and more affordable to build the housing our city needs," said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. "The City of Edmonton is working diligently to meet the growing demand for housing while expanding the variety of housing options to address diverse needs, including increasing our rental supply. City Council remains committed to implementing innovative policies and investments that ensure a strong future for all Edmontonians."
"People are flocking to Edmonton and we're in a race to build housing for The City Plan target of two million Edmontonians," said Kim Petrin, Deputy City Manager, Urban Planning and Economy. "For more than a decade, the City has been breaking down barriers to residential development to plan for and accommodate this explosive growth. This has helped make development easier and faster and help retain our affordability advantage. 2024 is on track to be a record year for building in Edmonton and permit applications show no sign of slowing down."
Some of the ways the City is making development faster and easier 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.
Through the first eight months of 2024, apartments, row houses, mixed-use houses, secondary suites and backyard houses account for 68 per cent of the City's total permitted residential units. These trends show an appetite for a variety of housing types and are aligned with the growth objectives of The City Plan and Edmonton's new Zoning Bylaw.
The City also acts as an early investor in non-market affordable housing, providing land and capital grants to help attract investment from other orders of government and the private sector.
The City has supported 5,571 units of affordable housing in the last five years, more than double the units created in the ten years prior to 2019. The City's investment of $254 million since 2019 has attracted an additional $891 million in investments from other orders of government and funding sources. The updated Affordable Housing Strategy set a new target of another 2,700 units between 2023 and 2026. We are on track to surpass this target by the end of 2024 with Council commitments for 2,879 new or renovated units of affordable housing.
"The city's growing in leaps and bounds - not only in the number of housing units, but the variety of housing types. Fostering