The city was listening to the public Tuesday as it moves forward towards creating an affordable housing strategy.
A public meeting held at City Hall attracted 25 people who listened to what the city has come up with so far, including 24 draft directions.
A draft affordable housing strategy is expected to be presented to council in a few weeks and a final strategy presented to council around June.
"Our intent today is to use feedback to help identify and prioritize key directions," said project manager Joan Jylanne.
She said the city is meeting the home ownership benchmark of affordable homes, but lags behind when it comes to affordable rental units.
Part of the problem is that new construction is shifting to multi-unit housing like condominiums, not apartments.
"Rental needs are not being met," Jylanne said. "The range of housing options in Guelph is not fully meeting the affordability of low and moderate income households."
The city also estimates that 45 per cent of all rental units in Guelph are in the "secondary" market, meaning homeowners who either rent their homes out or have apartments within their home.
Jylanne said one of the problems with the "secondary" rental market is that the city can't control how long it stays part of the city's rental inventory.
Problems with home ownership affordability is increasing due to increasing housing prices.
Some of the 24 draft directions being explored include:
- reviewing by-laws and regulations to see if there are barriers to building affordable housing.
- financial incentives to developers to build affordable housing.
- the city identifying and reserving land for affordable housing.
- providing development charge exemptions for affordable housing.
- use municipal land for affordable housing.
- bank land for future affordable housing projects.
It should be noted that an affordable housing strategy is not aimed at subsidized or geared-to-income housing. Those are the responsibility of the county.
Rather "affordable" in this case refers to a 2013 formula that puts homes at $294,000 and one-bedroom apartment rentals at $944.
The city target for the city is for 27 per cent of new housing for purchase to be affordable and three per cent of rental units to be affordable.
Jylanne said the city is hitting the target for home ownership, but not rental units.
Ward 2 councillor James Gordon, the only council member in attendance at Tuesday's public meeting, said it's important that affordable housing and social housing not be completely separated.
"I think that we would be not doing ourselves a favor as a city if we said 'we're the affordable housing guys and they (the County of Wellington) are the social housing guys.' We need to be integrated," Gordon said.
"Some of the language was a bit beaurocrat-ese," Gordon said of Tuesday's public meeting, noting that there were many different segments of the community in attendance.
"Are we all speaking the same language? Can we get their input in a way that feels meaningful?"
Public input into the affordable housing strategy can be done through the city's web site at http://guelph.ca/city-hall/planning-building-zoning/community-design/housing/affordable-housing/ until Feb. 22.
