More units, no exclusionary zoning for affordable housing in Ottawa
Posted Jan 26, 2023 03:30:00 AM.
During his mayoral campaign last year, Brandon Bay told the electorate his target was 160,000 more units 10 years. So, for him, getting to Sutcliffe's 100,000 mark is definitely possible if construction of new homes continues.
“The last few years, we've been seeing enough housing starts to exceed that number slightly,” said Bay, the newly appointed board chair for Make Housing Affordable, on The Sam Laprade Show. “Its going to take some effort to remain at that pace and turn those starts into completions.”
Bay says his organization is focusing on eliminating exclusionary zoning, the practice of restricting the types of housing allowed to be built in particular neighbourhoods, historically used to keep renters, lower-income and racialized communities out of certain areas.
According to Make Housing Affordable, nearly half of Ottawa is zoned as R1, meaning only single family homes can be built, leading to more urban sprawl and ballooning housing prices.
“So we're going to be advocating with the city a lot. And we're also going to be sharing these ideas as much as possible to help get buy-in from the community,” said Bay.
Bay added that while the elimination of development charges through Bill 23 is generally a good thing, because often those costs are just passed on to the home buyer, he believes that lost funding has to come from somewhere.
“It is going to hurt cities that have limited avenues to make money to just have these funds eliminated entirely,” said Bay. “It's going to mean that we can't move as fast as the province wants, or we're going to have to slash funding, both of which will have negative consequences for the city.”
Listen to the full interview with Brandon Bay on The Sam Laprade Show below.
