By Claude & Parth on 2026-03-25, City: Ottawa, View Transcript
City council approved a new 10-year housing and homelessness plan, replacing the previous 5-year strategy. The plan represents a shift toward flexible, community-led approaches to address Ottawa's housing crisis, though officials acknowledged the city cannot solve the problem alone and requires sustained provincial and federal funding. Council also passed a motion to harmonize inconsistent housing definitions across city departments.
Council approved a comprehensive 10-year plan that expands from 30 to over 200 pages, built on three main priorities: ensuring everyone has a home, providing necessary support services, and working collaboratively. The plan is legally required to access provincial and federal funding. Staff acknowledged significant progress over the past five years, including preserving 25,000 social housing units, constructing 554 new affordable units, and creating 3,279 housing benefits. However, officials admitted "we don't have all the necessary levers to tackle all the problems we face" and emphasized the need for structural change and investment from other levels of government.
Multiple speakers raised concerns that chronic homelessness levels have remained stagnant over five years despite ambitious goals to reduce it by 100% by 2030. Councillor Cruster expressed concern that "we forgot the chronic component here in this version of the plan." Officials acknowledged systemic problems, with one stating: "We designed a system here that creates a need to raise the risks so that it becomes chronic homelessness before we have the necessary services." The current system inadvertently encourages homelessness rather than preventing it, as Ontario housing benefits only help people who are already homeless, not those at risk of eviction.
A critical funding crisis was highlighted throughout the meeting. Officials revealed that only 16.8% of Ontario households needing subsidized housing receive it, with the provincial government currently funding $2 million when $6 billion is needed. One councillor stated: "We talk about mental health crisis, addiction, homelessness and housing crisis, but the crisis rests on the provincial government and the lack of funding." The city approved a $7.1 million cap on municipal housing programs, acknowledging it lacks fiscal capacity to expand programs like senior governments can. Over 600 families are currently in shelters, described as "incredible" and something "most people don't believe when they hear it."
The mayor committed to ending youth homelessness by 2030, with 19% of homeless individuals being Indigenous according to 2024 data. Speakers emphasized that 60% of homeless youth come from child protection services and one in three identify as LGBTQ2+. Community advocates stressed that "homelessness doesn't begin when a youth loses their housing. It starts much earlier than that" and called for prevention-focused approaches with specialized support services including mental health, education, and employment support.
Council passed a motion requiring staff to review and harmonize inconsistent housing definitions across city departments. Councillor Plante noted public confusion about the differences between shelters, transitional housing, supportive housing, social housing, and private market housing. One speaker acknowledged: "If as a community partner and staff, you work in this all the time and don't understand the definitions very well, it's obvious the public can't either." The harmonization should streamline future housing development approvals and reduce confusion.
Passed: - Adoption of the 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan (modified version) - Motion requiring staff to review and harmonize housing type definitions across all city services and report back with a unified framework and recommended updates