Regional Affordable Housing Strategy

Over the next 10 years, more than 15,000 new housing units will need to be built to meet the housing needs of a growing Essex County and 2,250 of those need to be affordable rental units, with 750 of those deeply affordable ones.

The Housing Needs Assessment conducted as part of the Regional Affordable Housing Strategy concluded that 80 per cent of all households do not have sufficient income to purchase a home in the County and more than 20 per cent of all households lack the necessary income to pay market rents. As well, 8,900 households in the County are paying more than 30 per cent of their monthly income on housing, with about 3,000 households paying more than 50 per cent of their income on housing.

“Housing affordability remains one of the most urgent challenges facing households living in the County,” said consultants in a presentation to Council. “As of December 2024, 9,845 active applicants were on the centralized waitlist for an affordable unit to become available in our region.”

The Regional Affordable Housing Strategy is founded on five insights that give rise to three strategic pillars and a range of suggested actions.

The five insights highlighted in a presentation to Council are:

1. There is a need to stimulate an increase in the supply of purpose-built rental housing.
2. There is a need for more housing affordable to a broad range of income levels.
3. There is a need for a greater variety of housing options to reflect changing household structures and growth patterns.
4. There is a need for more community housing options, including supportive and accessible units.
5. There is a need to improve access to permanent housing and related supports for those experiencing housing instability.

The three strategic pillars are:

1. Stimulating a Future-Focused Range of Housing Options: This pillar focuses on the ongoing and future residential development trends in Windsor-Essex, and how the city and county can encourage the creation of housing that meets the needs of existing and future residents.
2. Igniting a Thriving Housing Sector: This pillar focuses on strengthening the housing sector, increasing access to affordable, culturally appropriate, and supportive housing options.
3. Improving Housing Access for those in Greatest Need: This pillar focuses on the population groups of greatest need within Windsor-Essex. People experiencing homelessness and households in core housing need in the region are a priority for deeply affordable housing solutions.

Six “low cost, high impact” priority actions were identified for Council to consider in the future:

1. Identify, make available, and pre-zone surplus lands and infill development opportunities to provide low-cost sites to be used for new purpose-built affordable rental housing developments.
2. Pre-zone lands in both existing and new greenfield neighbourhoods that can be used for both small and large-scale purpose-built rental housing units, that can accommodate a diverse range of unit sizes to meet the evolving needs of families, single person households, and households with low and moderate incomes.
3. Prepare and Adopt Housing CIPs that offer targeted incentives to stimulate and support the creation of purpose-built affordable rental housing across the County.
4. Streamline planning and building regulatory review and approval processes, to expedite and accelerate the construction of new purpose-built rental housing developments, and to reduce the cost and time it takes for new rental housing to be built.
5. Partner with community housing providers and developers to utilize new technologies, innovative building designs, and federal and provincial funding sources to service sites and construct housing that is targeted to low and moderate-income households.
6. Allocate financial resources to new housing reserves to be used to invest in priority action affordable housing initiatives, including projects undertaken with the participation of community partners and senior levels of government.

Any specific funding requests associated with these recommendations “will be presented to Council as part of future budget processes as needs are identified and the potential costs for same can be determined,” said a report to Council.