The City of Mission received its end-of-year update on its affordable housing strategy at the Feb. 5 council meeting.
Council was provided with a quarterly report on 13 priorities that emerged from the affordable housing strategy adopted in 2022.
“[Affordable housing strategy] implementation priorities have had a significant focus on building data-informed and collaborative multi-sector capacity along with municipal policy tools that will create the necessary conditions to create new affordable rental housing units,” the report reads.
Current initiatives include initiating partnerships to develop affordable housing projects, housing policies that are under development and supporting SARA For Women.,
The city’s affordable housing team is also currently analyzing political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors affecting the implementation of the strategy.
Beyond the 13 priorities, a grant application for a new youth foundry was submitted in November. The city is also reviewing new provincial housing legislation to prepare for its impact and subsequent updates to policies, bylaws and administrative practices.
In January, the province announced the City of Mission would receive $345,952 in provincial funding to help meet new provincial legislative requirements related to housing.
An Affordable Housing Innovation Day is also in the works for the spring in Mission to focus on funding housing readiness, climate resilient design, community development integration, and building partnerships to advance ‘housing systems change’.
However, the city remains on pace to miss its target on approved affordable housing units set by the 2020 housing needs assessment. The assessment projected Mission would need 750 affordable rental housing units by 2024 — 150 per year.
In total, Mission has since issued building permits for 178 affordable housing units, 572 units short. According to the report, recent provincial legislative changes will include an updated housing needs assessment in 2024 using 2021 Census data.
The new report will include an updated affordable housing unit target.
The quarterly update indicates that the top 13 affordable housing strategy targets can be implemented by 2025 with sufficient resources made available by council. The implementation would be within the first three years of the strategy’s 10-year program.
