Housing Strategy
In Castlegar, safe, affordable, and appropriate housing is important to the social and economic wellbeing of our community.
Castlegar is growing – but housing availability and diversity is not keeping pace. Many families and individuals are finding it hard to call Castlegar home.
The City of Castlegar has developed a Housing Strategy to direct how we move forward as a community to ensure greater housing supply, affordability, and diversity of housing choice to accommodate the needs of the community now and into the future.
Our Community is Changing
Our senior population is growing. An aging population has different needs for housing to enable aging in place; including options for home care and smaller housing units that are accessible or ground level as mobility needs change.
Renter households are increasing at a rate two times the rate of owner households. Many of these households are in core housing need or paying more than 30% of their household income on shelter costs. This points toward a need for more purpose-built rental and secondary rental housing options.
Both renter and owner households are experiencing challenges with rising housing and energy costs. There is significant need for more diversity in housing choice within Castlegar to provide options for new homeowners and for those wanting to downsize. There is also a need for more rental units that can accommodate seniors, young families, and single-parent households. We do not have enough non-market housing units and supportive housing to meet the needs of the community and there are currently only ten seasonal emergency beds available to support the most vulnerable.
The objective of the Housing Strategy will be to provide a framework to implement and prioritize actions to promote the delivery of housing through community participation, partnership, and innovation.
Five Focus Areas of Castlegar’s Housing Strategy
- Increase Affordable Housing choice and support for low to moderate-income households and vulnerable residents, including those experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
- Support Housing Diversity that is reflective of the changing needs of the community through the provision of a variety of housing types, tenure, cost, and configurations.
- Promote Rental Housing by increasing opportunities for accessory dwellings, mixed-use and purpose-built rental housing developments.
- Reduce Barriers to housing by identifying methods to reduce financial and regulatory barriers and alignment of municipal development approval processes to support the development of housing options.
- Strengthen Partnerships and Community Awareness by pursuing innovative housing solutions and learning from others. Ensuring equitable engagement and capacity building opportunities.