Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan

About the project

Guelph’s Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP) program will provide financial incentives for developers and homebuilders for the rehabilitation of the city's existing housing supply into affordable purpose-built rentals and build new affordable rental and ownership units.

Gaps in Guelph’s housing market that have been identified in the State of Housing Report (2023) will guide the CIP objectives.

Details about the proposed programs for the CIP are outlined in the presentation and information boards.

What is a CIP?

Under the direction of the Municipal Act and Planning Act, municipalities can use CIPs as tools to incentivize the private sector to rehabilitate land and existing buildings as well as develop new infrastructure to shape local needs and priorities.

Financial incentives being proposed in Guelph’s Affordable Housing CIP are in the form of:

A vacant space rehabilitation grant: a one-time grant to boost the development of affordable primary rental units from existing vacant and uninhabitable buildings. The grant would provide $100,000 per unit to cover construction costs.

Property tax rebate grant: one-time payment in lieu of taxes paid over ten-year period for the creation of new affordable residential rental or ownership units.

Since 2004, Guelph has used CIPs. Previous programs have supported brownfield redevelopment, downtown renewal and the conservation of designated heritage assets.

City’s Affordable Housing Strategy

Increasing the supply of affordable housing is a priority in Guelph. We are using $3.2 million in funding received through the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund to create a new affordable housing CIP program. The CIP aims to meet the targets set out by the Housing Accelerator Fund action plan and the Province of Ontario housing pledge of 18,000 new homes by 2031.

The City is currently working on updating the existing Affordable Housing Strategy (2017) to identify actions like policy changes, tools and incentives, advocacy and partnership approaches to address private-market housing gaps. Implementing an affordable housing CIP aligns with community feedback and the spirit of the Housing Affordability Strategy work underway.

To learn more about the overall Housing Affordability Strategy and the additional ongoing projects under the Housing Accelerator Fund, visit Guelph’s Housing Accelerator Fund Action Plan Webpage.

How to participate

In person:

Join our public information session on Thursday, September 5 to talk with the project team and learn about the proposed CIP.

• Information Session #1 from 1:00pm-3:00pm in the Marg Mackinnon Community Room, City Hall
• Information Session #2 from 4:00-6:00pm in the Marg Mackinnon Community Room, City Hall

Online:

Review the presentation and information boards and take the short survey below by September 16. Have questions? Ask them using the question tool below.

At Council:

The public is welcome to participate at Council meetings. See key dates at the right side of this page for Council meeting details.