4 days ago
With federal funding, city says it will exceed its goal of 42,000 new housing units by next year
A partnership with the federal government will see new homes for 100,000 Calgarians, as the City of Calgary announced Wednesday that it has blown past housing benchmarks set with the Housing Accelerator Fund.
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The original target set alongside the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation aimed for just under 42,000 new housing units under way by fall of 2026. That target was later revised to 42,667 new units.
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Since receiving the $228.5 million investment in October 2023, the city says it has incentivized 44,276 new units — 104 per cent of the revised targets — more than a year ahead of schedule.
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'At the time, there's a lot of people who wondered if that target was maybe too ambitious. Today, I'm proud to stand here and say not only have we met the target, we have exceeded it more than a year ahead of schedule,' said Mayor Jyoti Gondek, speaking about the targets at the site of development recently approved through the fund.
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'These are futures that are made possible. It's a powerful reminder of what happens when different orders of government come together, where we collaborate, great things can happen, and that when we put funding in the hands of municipalities, we take action,' Gondek said.
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In March, Calgary was awarded an additional $22.8 million, thanks to 'high performance under the HAF program thus far.'
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That funding will feed into two new initiatives, Backyard Suites and Accessory Dwellings Program, and the Downtown Complete Community Housing Program. The former will assist homeowners in developing secondary dwellings on their property, referred to by Gondek as a 'gentle density' initiative.
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The latter includes several goals, namely the conversion of downtown office space into housing.
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Housing targets in the program were further broken down by housing type. Reid Hendry, chief housing officer of the City of Calgary, said 'to date we've achieved 103 per cent of our multi-unit target and 152 per cent of our multi-unit near transit target.'
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The targets for non-market housing are lagging behind the other two success stories, although the city says that those housing types are still on track for the original goalposts. The aim of non-market units sets at 746. 'To the end of June 2025, we're now at 301,' Hendry said.
