Official Community Plan

-116

THE ROLE OF HOUSING IN MEETING OUR GOALS

The City of Courtenay's role in supporting affordable housing for all citizens will be to: • Incentivize the private and non-profit sectors by providing relief from various development fees, charges and development standards, or making land available to development through zoning controls. • Regulate and mandate the provision of affordable housing as part of market developments. • Partner with non-profit providers to build housing by providing public land, relief from development fees and charges, or directly awarding funding. • Educate the wider community on the importance of diversity in housing and advocate to senior governments and other partners for support. The City will have to take full advantage of all of its roles in order to achieve a number of community wide housing goals and objectives. Key to achieving housing goals will be to ensure that the wide variety of players in the housing system are working proactively together towards mutually supportive goals. This includes ensuring that both the private and non-profit sectors can continue to viably provide housing for Courtenay residents, and exploring how the wider community can support dedicated housing funding for those in greatest need. need for a private vehicle, the second greatest household expense (see more in Part C – Policy Foundations: Understanding Affordability to explore how the OCP considers affordability from many dimensions).

Population growth trends and expected housing needs are identified in Part A. This OCP plans for an additional 4,500 more people over the 2016 population, and a corresponding 2,900 more housing units to be developed across Courtenay in accordance with Managing Growth policies (Part B). The 2020 Regional Housing Needs Assessment identifies more immediate housing needs for Courtenay by 2025: a total of 1,000 new units of the following sizes: 30 bachelor units, 65 1-bedroom units, 345 2-bedroom units and 570 3+ bedroom units. While the Housing Needs Assessment does not stipulate what tenures or forms these new units should be, the data indicates that more rental housing, and an increasing amount of below- and non-market rental housing, will be needed. This means that while the private sector will continue to be a significant sector in the provision of more housing, there will also be a growing role for non-profit organizations to provide and manage housing with funding and assistance from senior governments. Housing Needs Assessments are now required of all local governments in BC, and must be updated every five years. These five year updated assessments will support better monitoring of housing needs as Courtenay grows and allow the City of Courtenay and all housing providers to better respond. The primary strategy of the OCP to increase housing affordability is to support increases in supply by allowing more units throughout the entire city, with highest densities being focused into targeted growth centres. In this way, affordability may be achieved through a variety of size, location, and tenure options for residents to access as their housing needs change over time. The centralized locations of new development may also allow for a household to forego the

City of Courtenay Official Community Plan