7.2 Housing for Everyone

Principle

Strive to ensure that housing is available to everyone by meeting a full range of community needs.

Housing is a fundamental human right in Canada. Not only is housing essential to people's inherent dignity and well-being, but it is also essential to building inclusive communities. Government, agencies, and other community-building partners all have roles to play in ensuring that housing exists for a range of community needs and income levels. A limited amount of affordable housing is a barrier to many who may want to make St. Albert home. Providing housing for vulnerable populations is a key component in building an inclusive community. The following policies support the provision of housing options, enabling everyone to have a place to call home.

Aging in place and age-friendly communities

Aging in place is a person’s ability to live in the same home or community safely, independently, and comfortably as they age. Aging in place might mean renovating an existing house for accessibility,  moving to a smaller, lower maintenance home nearby, or accessing in-home supports and services. Municipalities can support aging in place by encouraging age-friendly design in new and redeveloping areas. Age-friendly communities are accessible, inclusive, and designed to meet the needs of residents as they age by optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security.

Policies

7.2.1.

Require all new statutory plans with a residential component to include a variety of housing forms.
 

7.2.2.

Develop and maintain a Housing Affordability Strategic Plan that identifies issues and gaps in the housing supply, objectives to meet current and projected housing needs, sustainable funding, and implementation tools.
 

7.2.3.

Encourage the incorporation of accessibility features into new and renovated homes, which can transition and accommodate all people, regardless of age or ability.
 

7.2.4.

Encourage a diverse and inclusive range of housing by:

1. Offering incentives;
2. Identifying and acquiring land for affordable housing projects; and
3. Implementing varying planning and engineering standards, as deemed appropriate by the City.
    

7.2.5.

Partner with local and regional organizations, agencies, and private enterprises to develop and maintain a systematic response to meet the emergency, transitional, and permanent housing needs of vulnerable groups.
 

7.2.6.

Enable specialized accommodation and care facilities in all Neighbourhoods, Trail Corridor Areas, and Mixed-use Nodes to promote inclusive communities.
 

7.2.7.

Partner with housing stakeholders, developers, and agencies to proactively increase the long-term supply of market and non-market affordable housing, in accordance with the City’s housing strategies.
 

7.2.8.

Encourage a mixture of market and non-market affordable housing through redevelopment plans.
 

7.2.9.

Leverage long-term non-market affordable housing through targeted municipal investment and funding.
 

7.2.10.

Encourage and support collaboration between developers, non-governmental agencies, other levels of government, and other partners to include affordable housing within new development and redevelopment.
 

7.2.11.

Support the use of municipal lands that are surplus to City needs to enable non-market affordable housing development.

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