What can one city do?

Halton municipalities are making moves towards increasing housing supply

This image shows different housing types to consider for low and middle income households (Source)

Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis, and the Halton Region is no exception.

Our emergency shelter system is currently operating at a capacity of 140% (Source). Further, data from 2021 showed that nearly 44% of renters, and 19% of home owners lived in unaffordable housing in Halton (Source).

When it comes to housing in Canada, responsibility for support gets shifted around. In the mid-1990’s, an initiative called the Local Services Realignment saw the issue of social housing downloaded from the federal to the provincial level, and then once again, to the municipal level (Source). In fact, successful housing policy requires collaboration on all levels of government.

The federal government has access to most capital for infrastructure funds and investment. Whereas the provincial government greatly influences matters like the Residential Tenancies Act, and approving regulations for zoning and planning, which can help keep the rental market affordable (Source). The province of Ontario also sets the rates for social assistance, which impact the ability of many Ontarians to pay rent. It might be surprising then to learn that in Ontario, 77% of funding for social housing is provided by the municipal government, with 14% coming from the provincial level, and the remaining 9% from the federal (Source).

Despite drawing from more limited funding pools, municipalities in Halton Region are making headway in changes that will create housing options for people that go beyond condos and single-family homes.

The City of Burlington hosted an event on April 30th to highlight the city’s Garage Conversion Kit, a project created in partnership with Invizij Architects. The goal was to provide citizens with guidance on how to make use of existing garages to create Additional Residential Units (ARUs) on their properties to encourage “gentle densification”. The kit includes example floor plans, and estimated costs, and can be found at: Garage Conversion Toolkit - City of Burlington.

This project involved cross-collaboration between Zoning and Building Services teams, as well as the Integrated Mobility team, to ensure that parking was considered. A $170 000 budget has been approved by Burlington City Council to waive zoning fees associated with building an ARU to encourage citizens to start this project. The Housing Strategy team will also be releasing an AI tool at the end of June to help citizens assess whether their property can accommodate an ARU.

Also known as laneway houses or nanny suites, ARUs have been increasingly used by other municipalities to address the “missing middle” of housing types that can be afforded by those in middle-income brackets. Hamilton adopted amendments to Zoning By-laws in 2021 to encourage the creation of tiny homes, duplexes, and triplexes (Source), and Milton in 2024 (Source). By taking advantage of zoning amendments that allow more than one residential unit per lot, municipalities allow the limited resource of land to be more readily shared.  

However, it does not stop at amending zoning by-laws to enable the construction of ARUs, duplexes, and triplexes. Funding also needs to accompany these efforts to ensure they are taken up by citizens and developers. These amendments in Burlington are further supported by policies in the City’s Affordable Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan, recently passed by City Council. By establishing a Community Improvement Plan for Burlington, the city can provide grants, loans and other financial incentives to encourage landowners to build additional affordable residences on their property.

Of note are the forgivable loan programs introduced by the city. These programs offer a fully forgivable loan, effectively a grant, to property owners who build an ARU and maintain the unit as affordable for a minimum of 10 years (Source). Affordability here has been set by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and is indicated as $1641 for a 1-bedroom unit. Other incentives include municipal fee waivers as well as development charge deferrals, of which you can learn more about at: Community Improvement Plan.

These efforts represent steps taken to advance the City’s Housing Strategy, approved in 2022. In January 2024, it was announced that Burlington would receive $21 million through the Housing Accelerator Fund, to advance the city’s ability to build affordable housing quickly. The ARU and Garage Conversion project will help the city meet it’s Housing Supply Growth Target of 2724 units, of which 1047 have been designated as “missing middle” units, and 228 units have been designated for affordable units (Source).

Visit our blog often as we keep our ear to the ground on housing initiatives around the Region of Halton, and to learn more about how municipalities continue to address the housing crisis.