Affordable Housing Strategy
Regional Council approved a comprehensive 10-year roadmap to expand and protect affordable housing across the municipality. Presented at the August 2026 meeting (report here), the Affordable Housing Strategy (AHS) formalizes the city’s role in enabling non-market, supportive, and deeply affordable housing while unlocking the final $19.8 million installment of Halifax's $79.3 million federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) agreement.
The strategy is anchored in stark data from municipal and provincial housing assessments:
- Widespread Need: About 12% of HRM households (22,540 homes) live in Core Housing Need, facing severe affordability, adequacy, or suitability challenges.
- The Rent Squeeze: Roughly 67% of renter households cannot afford the local median rental price. For households earning under $30,000 annually, only 2.4% of rental units are affordable.
- Tight Vacancy: Halifax’s rental vacancy rate sits at 2.7%, dropping to an ultra-tight 0.6% for units priced 30% to 45% below median market rent.
The Unit Count: Units Enabled, Repaired, and in the Pipeline
The report highlights both past performance from municipal incentive programs and the broader housing supply being unlocked across the municipality:
Direct Municipal Investment & Outcomes (2021 – Dec 2025)
Through targeted municipal programs—including the Affordable Housing Grant Program (AHGP), the federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), Permit Fee Waivers, and Property Tax Relief—HRM has directly supported 1,327 non-market and deeply affordable units:
- Supportive & Deeply Affordable Housing:
- 255 new deeply affordable units/rooms built.
- 89 existing units/rooms repaired.
- 98 new units/rooms currently planned or under construction.
- Non-Market & Affordable Rental Housing:
- 104 new affordable units built.
- 269 existing affordable units acquired to protect affordability.
- 119 existing units repaired.
- 492 new units currently planned or under construction.
Total Non-Market Impact: 359 newly built units, 269 acquired units, 208 repaired units, and 590 units actively in the pipeline.
Broad Housing Supply & Forward Pipeline
- Strategy Target Context: The Affordable Housing Strategy itself serves as a flexible framework and intentionally does not set rigid municipal delivery targets. Instead, it works in tandem with the Regional Plan and senior-government funding programs to accelerate shovel-ready builds.
- Federal HAF Alignment: Under the broader Housing Accelerator Fund agreement that required this strategy, municipal regulatory reforms and permitting accelerations are designed to fast-track 2,600 permitted units in the short term and help spur over 8,800 new homes over the next decade.
- Provincial & Federal Commitments: Joint senior-government partnerships announced alongside the strategy framework target an additional 1,430 new affordable homes across HRM (including a 930-unit mixed-market and public housing redevelopment at Shannon Park) and over 150 new provincial public housing units in Halifax and Lower Sackville by 2028.
The Core Levers: How HRM Supports Affordable Housing
Rather than acting as a direct landlord or developer, Halifax operates primarily as an enabler and strategic partner. The strategy focuses municipal resources where local government has direct authority—land use planning, permitting, tax policy, and municipal surplus lands.
| Program / Tool | Role & Recent Track Record |
|---|---|
| Affordable Housing Grant Program (AHGP) | Administered over $17M between 2021 and 2025 across 34 projects to support non-profit acquisition, construction, and repairs, funded largely via Bonus Zoning reserves and HAF. |
| Property Tax Relief | Streamlined tax relief for non-profits, charities, and co-ops (providing up to 100% relief for supportive and deeply affordable builds; ~$2.6M combined annual support in 2025/26). |
| Permit Fee Waivers | Waives municipal construction permit fees for non-profit and charitable affordable housing projects (averaging ~$230,000 annually). |
| Surplus Municipal Land | Selling or leasing surplus municipal real estate at below-market value for non-profit affordable developments. |
| Zoning & Regulatory Modernization | Removing barriers to missing-middle housing, modular builds, mass timber, and cluster housing through ongoing planning reviews. |
Budget and Implementation Roadmap
To execute the 10-year action plan, the strategy outlines a lean resourcing plan within Planning & Development:
- Dedicated Team: Expanding the current housing complement from 1 Senior Planner to a permanent 3-person team (adding 2 FTEs).
- Net Incremental Cost: Estimated at $2.43 million over 10 years, with initial staffing covered by federal HAF funding through October 2027 before transitioning to the municipal operating budget.
- Accountability: Staff will deliver biennial (every 2 years) progress updates to Regional Council, alongside scheduled Housing Needs Assessment refreshes in 2028 and 2033.
At Council, the Mayor introduced an amendment to move the proposed staffing positions to the Budget Adjustment List (BAL), requiring a separate Council vote during budget deliberations to fund them. While I respect the commitment to fiscal responsibility, approving a strategy without the capacity to deliver it simply didn't make sense to me. The track record speaks for itself: municipal support has delivered substantial, positive outcomes across HRM, falls inside municipal mandates (land use planning, permitting, tax policy, and municipal surplus lands), and unlocks further dollars from other levels of government. At an estimated cost of just 0.02% on the average property tax bill - about one dollar a year - this is a modest investment with an outsized return. Additionally, In the 2024 resident survey (blog post here), housing supply ranked as the #1 priority across the municipality, with affordable housing ranking #2 overall and tying for #3 in District 13. Ultimately, the amendment failed, and I also voted against the amendment.