Waterloo's housing commitment recognized with $1.3 million in additional federal funding

The City of Waterloo has been recognized as a top-performing Housing Accelerator Fund community, receiving an additional $1.3 million in Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) support to address housing affordability and supply challenges in our community.

To be considered a top performer, communities met their unit forecasts and delivered on their HAF Action Plan commitments for the first year.

With this new funding the City will create a Place of Worship Inventory and proactively carry out planning assessments and associated Official Plan Amendments and Zoning By-law amendments. Permitting multi-unit housing as-of-right on Places of Worship properties will help streamline the development approvals process and remove barriers facing faith communities in moving forward with redevelopment projects in Waterloo. Learn more on Engage Waterloo: http://www.engagewr.ca/initiative-9-redevelopment-places-worship-housing

“The Housing Accelerator Fund removes barriers by supporting local initiatives which build more homes, faster,” said the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Member of Parliament for Waterloo. “The HAF helps to boost housing supply by enabling municipalities to make decisions that address the needs of their communities. To ensure these budgeted dollars are spent, the 27 top-performing communities, which I’m proud to say includes Waterloo, received additional funding demonstrating the federal government’s commitment to outcomes that benefit more Canadians.”

“This funding is a game-changer in tackling Waterloo’s housing crisis,” said City of Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe. “Our hard work is paying off, and we’re excited to receive even more resources to push further. Together with our partners across the private, non-profit, academic and faith sectors, we will keep driving housing projects that turn our vision of a compete community into reality.”

Since the City of Waterloo was originally awarded $22 million in funding from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund in February 2024, we have:

• made the city-owned lands at 2025 University Avenue East available for over 1,000 affordable and attainable housing units;
• enabled “missing middle” housing options by-right throughout the city;
• updated the Official Plan and Zoning by-law to enable residential uses along with employment and commercial uses 'as of right' on certain lands that were previously designated for employment purposes only;
• created a toolkit to help homeowners build Additional Residential Units;
• approved a process for reviewing and approving parking reductions for housing containing affordable units.

To stay up to date on all the initiatives under the City of Waterloo’s Housing Accelerator Fund action plan, visit www.engagewr.ca/waterloohafactions.

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Media contact:

Stacey Abbott
Manager, Corporate Communications
Stacey.Abbott@waterloo.ca