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

Since June 2024, we have come together in person and online to share information about the project. Thank you for your input. Please review the Affordable Housing CIP engagement summary to see how community feedback was used to develop the draft CIP.

We're presenting information to Council next and the public is invited to participate.

At Council:

On November 13, we will present the project at the Council planning meeting. After reviewing feedback, we will then present the project to Council for approval on January 21, 2025.

• Review the council materials for the Council Planning meeting on November 13 including: the Draft Community Improvement Plan, the Council Presentation, the Project Area and the public meeting information.
• Learn more about the Council presentation details and other key dates
• To learn how you can register to speak at a meeting or submit written comments, please visit guelph.ca/delegations

Online:

Still have questions? Ask them using the question tool below. To learn more, please review the presentation and information boards.