Facing a historically low vacancy rate, Sudbury presents a draft housing supply strategy

Amid an important housing crunch, Greater Sudbury city council received a draft of a new housing supply strategy on Tuesday.

It was developed over the span of a year by the planning department, which hadreceived some 92 submissions from local residents in its consultation process, and feedback from local groups.

The city currently has a 1.6 per cent vacancy rate, which is the percentage of units within the city that is currently unoccupied.An ideal vacancy rate for renters hovers around fiveper cent, according to the city's senior planner, Melissa Riou.

The framework outlines three main areas where the local government could act to boost housing.

One of those areas is policy. City staff recommend updating the secondary dwelling policy, which consists of carving out additional units within existing homes.

That could mean creating an apartment out of the basement of a house, for example.

The draft document says 110 units were added to the city stock in 2022 and 2023 using this approach.

Riou told council that "secondary dwelling units really provide a missing middle and gentle form of intensification across the city."

Another policy the city plans to focus onis adding residential components to commercial and institutional zones in the hopes developers might take an interest in these spaces.

These ideasare not new per se. Riousaidthe housing supply strategy is builds on the housing affordability work the city started earlier in 2016and adds toapproaches that have proved effective in the past. It also incorporates elements of other strategic documents, like the downtown master plan.

In the past two years, the City of Greater Sudbury issued permits to build some 1,100 new units, including 295 detached homes, 91 semi-detached units, 113 townhomes, 346 apartmentsand 160 retirement homes.

With that, the city is on track to exceed its provincially set target of 3,800 new units by 2031.

How the province defines affordability

While the city aims to build homes across the spectrum, including affordable housing, it doesn't necessarily mean low- income groups will see their housing opportunities change dramatically in the years to come.

The city uses the Provincial Policy Statement definition of affordable. In Sudbury, that means any rental price that is under 30 per cent of an annual income of $112,500 or less per household is deemed affordable.

In other words, $1,030 in monthly rent for a bachelor apartment in Sudbury would be considered affordable, even though it would represent about 50 per cent of the income of a person earning minimum wage.

Riou saidthat while the city has to abide by the province's definition, "it could still opt to provide incentives for a deeper level of affordability as well."

There will be more public consultations on Sudbury's housing supply strategy in the months to come, with staff hoping to submit a final version by June.