Affordable Housing Strategy

The City of Richmond Hill’s Affordable Housing Strategy will provide guidance and tools for the City to work with the building and development sector to create affordable housing in the private housing market in Richmond Hill.

Project Status

Additional Residential Units

The City proposes to amend the Official Plan and the Zoning By-law to expand permissions for an additional residential unit (presently termed "secondary suite" in the Official Plan) within a ground-related dwelling, and also to permit an additional residential unit in a structure ancillary to the ground-related dwelling on the same lot.

The intent of these amendments are to bring the Official Plan and the Zoning By-law into conformity with Provincially legislated requirements and to facilitate housing diversity. The amendment will also help to guide future development of additional residential units and to increase the supply of affordable housing in order to meet the needs of Richmond Hill residents. The purpose of the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment is to implement the proposed Official Plan Amendment policies.

These proposed amendments were considered at the February 24, 2021 Council Meeting, and have been deferred to the March 24, 2021 Council Meeting.  For a copy of the Staff Report and related attachments, please see item 13.6 on the February 24, 2021 Council Agenda. A copy of the draft Official Plan Amendment, a copy of the draft City–wide Omnibus Zoning By-law and a copy of the draft amending Zoning By-law for the Yonge and Bernard Key Development Area Secondary Plan Zoning By-law (111-17) are also available for viewing.

Affordable Housing Strategy

SHS Consulting has been hired to undertake the research and develop the strategy in consultation with stakeholders and the public. There are three phases in this project.

• Phase One: Background research (underway)
• Phase Two: Consultation (fall 2020/winter 2021)
• Phase Three:  Drafted Strategy for Council approval and a Developer's Handbook to guide implementation (spring 2021)

What is the Affordable Housing Strategy?

The Affordable Housing Strategy will explore tools and tactics to ensure that housing geared to middle-income households are provided through the development process (the review, processing, and approval of development applications). The City will use the findings from the Strategy to prepare a “Developer’s Handbook” that will help guide the creation of affordable housing units.

The strategy will consider a variety of options to increase the supply of housing that is affordable to the current and future residents of Richmond Hill, including things like financial incentives for new construction and/or renovation of units, regulatory tools, and other initiatives.

Why does it matter?

In York Region, Richmond Hill has the highest proportion of both owner and tenant households experiencing affordability issues. Many people looking for new housing may be priced out. The City needs a strategy to ensure housing supply is in sync with household need and income. Richmond Hill’s demographics are changing. By 2024, one in four residents will be millennials (aged 25-44), and one in five residents will seniors (aged 65 and older). These two groups may have different needs when it comes to housing, including affordability.

The City’s Affordable Housing Strategy will consider the following attributes of housing:

• suitable (in size) for the number of people living in the unit,
• adequate (do not require any major repair), and
• affordable in relation to a household’s income (i.e. the household is spending less than 30 percent of its income on shelter).

According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, these attributes are fundamental to the health and wellbeing of households.

Documents and Reports

• Council approved the business case for developing an Affordable Housing Strategy through its Capital Budget approval in February 2019 (For the full document, please see the 2019 Capital Budget and Forecast)
• On November 5, 2020, the City held a virtual Public Open House to discuss the need for the City's Affordable Housing Strategy and options to consider within the Strategy. If you were unable to attend, you can view the Virtual Public Open House presentation slides.
• A Council Public Meeting related to Additional Residential Units (secondary suites) was held on December 2, 2020. The Staff Report, as well as the accompanying draft Official Plan Amendment and draft Zoning By-law Amendment are available in the agenda on the Council Calendar.