HOUSING

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 Housing is city business The City has funded community-led housing initiatives through the  Housing Rehabilitation and Investment Reserve (HRIR) fund for over 25  years, supporting Indigenous housing providers to maintain their units  and Neighbourhood Renewal Corporations to develop local housing  plans and for local projects such as housing rehabilitation. Recently  the City has taken a more active role in housing policy, capitalizing  on Federal funding through the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) and  CMHC funding streams like the Rapid Housing Initiative. The Housing  Accelerator Fund provided the City with $122.4 million over three years  and required the City to permit increased density through zoning and to  boost the supply of housing, including affordable housing.4 HAF funding  allowed the City to hire more staff and increase capacity to plan, facilitate,  and deliver affordable and rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing. With  the final installment of HAF funding and fees collected under the Vacant  Buildings Bylaw, the City created a one-time Vacant Building Grant which  aims to increase affordable housing by funding repairs, renovations, or  purchases of vacant or underutilized buildings.5 Unfortunately, the end of  HAF funding in 2027 threatens to derail the City’s recent progress unless  the City’s own resources are devoted to maintaining staff capacity and  strengthening these efforts. 

Increasing the supply of new social housing

 Between 2022 and 2026, the City supported the creation of 3,930 units of  housing: 1,406 renting at market rents, 1,592 renting at affordable rents,  and just 932 units where rents are geared to tenant incomes, where rental  subsidies were provided by the Province.6 It’s a start, but much more  must be done. The City’s own 2025 Housing Needs Assessment suggests  that almost 21,000 units of RGI and 12,500 units of affordable housing  are required over the next ten years to eliminate homelessness and  core housing need.7 Many City-supported projects have involved market  housing developers who offer below-market housing for a limited time.  This may achieve units in the short term but can lead to displacement  following 10 or 20-year affordability periods. Housing initiatives should  be restricted to, or heavily prioritize, non-market social housing projects  with a mandate to preserve affordability over the long-term. Subsidy  agreements with the Province could enable the units to be rented at RGI  rates. The City should continue to use tools such as fast-tracking  developments, reducing zoning requirements, offering tax incentives, and  providing City-owned land for social housing. Private developers have  also greatly benefited from some of these tools. City policy should be fine tuned so that more affordable or below-market units are required when  private developers access benefits such as reduced parking requirements  or density bonuses. Financial benefits such as tax incentives and grants  should be restricted to social housing providers. City staff expertise  should be dedicated to provide increased technical assistance to social  housing providers to successfully plan, develop, and deliver new housing. Building on the success of HAF and RHI, the City should establish  a program funded through its own revenues and restricted to social  housing, Indigenous housing, and RGI unit development, providing  predevelopment funding and grants to cover development fees. Following  the example of Calgary, the City should include office or non-residential  conversions to social or Indigenous rental housing within the program. 

 Protecting affordable rental housing 

 In addition to supporting the creation of new social housing, the City must  prevent the loss of existing lower-rent units. Between 2011 and 2021, we  lost 24,095 units renting under $750/month; most through rent increases.8  In a recent study, ninety-five per cent of Winnipeg condominiums that  were not purpose-built as condominiums had been converted from rental  housing, contributing to a loss of 10,684 rental units.9 Ninety-four rooming  houses and 367 rental apartments were lost to demolition between 2011  and 2025.10 Vacant properties in the City’s registry have grown from 543  in 2021, to 783 in the fall of 2025.11 Many of these homes soon become  uninhabitable, decreasing neighbourhood safety 

 The City should develop and fund a permanent program to identify  and support the acquisition and rehabilitation of multi-unit rental housing  for non-market social housing, Indigenous housing providers, housing  co-ops, and community land trusts, building on and improving the one time Vacant Building Grant in line with Toronto’s successful $20 million  Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition Program. Winnipeg’s lower property value market, and large number of distressed properties would allow for  a smaller investment to realize significant gains in non-market units, and  prevent the loss of rental housing through disrepair and demolition. The City should also devote increased resources to community designed housing initiatives, including protecting existing housing,  by doubling the Housing Rehabilitation Investment Reserve, which  supports the repair of approximately 150 units annually in at-need  neighbourhoods and increasing the proportion of funding dedication to  Indigenous housing providers from twenty per cent to at least thirty per  cent.12 Landlord recipients should be required not to raise rents above the  provincial rent guideline. The City should use its bylaw powers to address the loss of low-rent  housing by implementing a ‘No Net Loss’ rental replacement bylaw, such  as the one in Toronto, which requires a developer to replace the same  number of units and at similar rents when they demolish or convert a  rental property.13 The City should also introduce bylaws to protect tenants  from being evicted when a landlord seeks to renovate a unit like those  existing in New Westminster,14 Hamilton,15 and Toronto.16 While introducing  new bylaws are a no-cost measure, enforcing such policies requires  dedicated staff. The City should also help keep rental homes safe and habitable  through enforcement of the Neighbourhood Liveability bylaw through  proactive inspections of rental housing. Similar programs, like RentSafeTO  in Toronto, regularly audit multi-residential rental housing, quickly  addressing disrepair.17 Inspections could also be used to identify potential  properties for the acquisition fund program, to prevent units becoming  vacant through disrepair or landlord neglect.