City Council passes Housing Strategy

Councillor Walcott addresses media after the successful vote on Saturday. (Image source: CBC)

In a special meeting held on Saturday, Calgary City Council voted in 12-3 in favour of passing the Housing Strategy in its entirety. The strategy includes releasing more under-utilized City-owned land for construction of market and non-market housing; dedicated two City-owned sites to rapidly establish temporary transitional housing for families experiencing homelessness, initiating a comprehensive process to legalize duplexes and row homes across the city; $10,000 incentives for new secondary suites; funding for new student housing and more.

Source: Twitter

Citizens show up in supermajority of support for Housing Strategy

Image source: Calgary Herald

Roughly 157 of the 181 citizens (87%) who spoke over the two-day public hearing voiced support for the Housing Strategy.

Attempts to gut the Housing Strategy failed

Cllr. Sharp unsuccessfully attempted to block city wide upzoning for row homes and duplexes. (Image source: CBC)

Attempts by Councillor Sonya Sharp and Councillor Andre Chabot to gut the Housing Strategy by removing the citywide legalization of duplexes and row homes failed. 

Ultimately, the strategy passed in a vote of 12-3 with Councillors McLean, Demong and Chu opposed. 

🙏THANK YOU!

Big thanks to everyone who advocated with us for the Housing Strategy, including those who signed our petition, emailed City Council, and spoke at the public hearing.

📺Stay tuned for more!

We will need citizens to remain active to ensure City Council follows through with the housing strategy and defend against future attempts to gut it. Follow Project Calgary for future updates.