Guelph emphasizes city's jurisdiction to combat housing crisis during workshop

Addressing the housing crisis in Guelph means understanding what the city can and can't do, city staff told councillors during a special education workshop Tuesday night.

Tuesday's workshop was meant for councillors, but staff said it was also an opporuntiy for the public to understand the issues the city faces when it comes to building more housing. The city has pledged to build 18,000 new housing units by 2031.

The workshop consisted of a lengthy presentation that delved deep into Guelph and Wellington County's housing initiatives. Staff and councillors also discussed things like the city's role in the private housing market, student housing and what's being done to up the housing stock.

During the meeting, city staff unveiled a new website that includes an interactive map showing where homes are permitted to be built but that have no active building permits. 

Mayor Cam Guthrie, who called for the special meeting, says the point of the workshop was, in part, to make clear "who does what."

"That way, if there is opportunities in the future — which there will be by the way — of public delegation, public feedback around this issue, that at least everyone is educated at the same time tonight, and from that foundation we can only build upon it together," Guthrie said in an interview ahead of the meeting.

'We're putting in the work'

Through a series of diagrams the city staff illustrated what they call the "housing continuum," which ranges from things like emergency shelters and transitional housing, to rentals and "home ownership."

City staff explained that Wellington County runs things like transitional or supportive housing, where the city has more control on the private housing market. 

There was no debate among council or direction provided to staff during the workshop. 

Scott Stewart, Guelph's chief administrative officer, said in a release Wednesday morning that the workshop "gave us an opportunity to really get into the details of what we're doing to get shovels in the ground."

"We're here, we're putting in the work, we're spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars to make it happen. But we can't do it alone," Stewart said. "This is not just the city's problem. This is a collective problem, and we need other levels of government, community partners, and developers to help us solve it."

Guthrie said that the public will have an opportunity to have their say on housing in the fall.