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Vancouver's social housing initiative

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Making Vancouver more inclusive and equitable is a key priority of Vancouver Plan, the city’s long-term land-use strategy. Vancouver’s Social Housing Initiative works toward the critical need for affordable housing by simplifying and changing zoning regulations to allow for mixed-income social, supportive, and co-operative housing to be built without a rezoning in all Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Taking direction from Vancouver Plan’s approved land use vision, this initiative would permit non-profit and government organizations to build social housing buildings from 6 to 18 storeys, depending on neighbourhood type, with a focus on areas close to transit and commercial centres. New buildings will have the opportunity to include local serving retail and childcare alongside social housing.

These proposed changes would allow social housing projects to be built faster with less cost, giving priority to providing homes for people who need them most and working toward maintaining diversity in the city.

Learn more:

Making Vancouver more inclusive and equitable is a key priority of Vancouver Plan, the city’s long-term land-use strategy. Vancouver’s Social Housing Initiative works toward the critical need for affordable housing by simplifying and changing zoning regulations to allow for mixed-income social, supportive, and co-operative housing to be built without a rezoning in all Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Taking direction from Vancouver Plan’s approved land use vision, this initiative would permit non-profit and government organizations to build social housing buildings from 6 to 18 storeys, depending on neighbourhood type, with a focus on areas close to transit and commercial centres. New buildings will have the opportunity to include local serving retail and childcare alongside social housing.

These proposed changes would allow social housing projects to be built faster with less cost, giving priority to providing homes for people who need them most and working toward maintaining diversity in the city.

Learn more:

  • Engagement summary report and next steps

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    Engagement Summary
    In September 2024, the City launched public engagement on the Social Housing Initiative. We appreciate your ongoing engagement and thoughtful contributions throughout the first phase of public engagement. We have read through and summarized all the comments received, please read the public engagement summary (linked below) to learn more about what we heard.


    Updated map
    Public feedback from the first phase of engagement advised that the draft map was unclear as it did not show explicitly that existing parks, schools, community centres and cemeteries were not proposed for rezoning for social housing. This updated version of the map includes cut-outs to address this concern.


    Next steps
    The report to City Council, originally scheduled for end of Q2 2025, has been postponed to Q4 2025 to accommodate further technical work and analysis. A second round of public engagement will be held in June to present and receive comments on the refined proposal.

Page last updated: 22 Jan 2025, 03:01 PM