Affordable Housing
Since 2001, we have been working with the provincial and federal governments and local community partners to address issues of affordable housing in our community. Our goal is to provide a range of housing types and tenures to meet the needs of Nanaimo's residents; this includes incentives to develop affordable housing, zoning bylaws that allow for a range of housing types and tenures and support to nonprofit agencies providing a variety of social services.
This page outlines a brief summary of those projects, incentives and supports, as well as some of the research done since 2001.
Affordable Housing Strategy
Nanaimo’s Official Community Plan identifies access to housing as critical to community well-being, and ‘Affordable Housing’ is one of Council’s top strategic initiatives for 2016-2019. The City has developed an Affordable Housing Discussion Paper that identifies current housing needs, priority areas and options for action. This Discussion Paper was followed by an Affordable Housing Strategy that sets the priorities for the City of Nanaimo for 2017-2027 to address non-market and market housing affordability across the housing continuum. To learn more about the Affordable Housing Strategy process, click here.
Policies and Bylaws related to Affordable Housing
Density Bonusing for Social Housing
See Schedule D of the Zoning Bylaw (this link goes to the main zoning page where the zoning bylaw is broken down into section, etc. and also available as a mapping feature).
Rooming Houses
See Section 6.17 of the Zoning Bylaw (this link goes to the main zoning page where the zoning bylaw is broken down into section, etc. and also available as a mapping feature).
Secondary Suites
See Section 6.15 of the Zoning Bylaw (this link goes to the main zoning page where the zoning bylaw is broken down into section, etc. and also available as a mapping feature).