New Report Identifies Mississauga’s Affordable Housing Gaps and Best Practices

As part of the City of Mississauga’s commitment to improving access to affordable housing, staff presented a Housing Gap Assessment and Municipal Best Practices report to the City’s Planning and Development Committee for Committee’s review.

The report concludes that an affordable housing gap exists from both an income and a supply perspective. The report recommends that the City’s actions should focus on the supply gap. The income gap is best addressed by senior levels of government, according to the report.

“Affordable housing is critical to a healthy community and to the well-being of everyone who lives, works and raises a family in Mississauga,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie. “We are making affordable housing a priority and this report will help us focus our actions and resources where they can be most effective – in addressing the supply gap.”

The report also identifies a number of tools that could help protect and increase the City’s supply of affordable housing. These include regulatory and process tools, land-based and financial incentives and enabling legislation.

“The information in this report will support our work to increase access to affordable housing options in Mississauga,” said Ed Sajecki, Commissioner of Planning and Building. “We will continue to work with the Region of Peel, the provincial and federal governments and other association and agency partners to meet this goal.”

Next steps could include investigating a cost estimate of incentives and tools, establishing an annual housing target and exploring housing programs and funding available from other levels of government.

The City is developing an affordable housing program in partnership with the Region of Peel. The program is expected to be established by the end of 2016.