Unlocking Affordable Housing Supply

Unlocking Affordable Housing Supply How North American Municipalities Can Modernize Housing Policy to Eliminate Disincentives North America is grappling with an escalating affordable housing crisis driven in large part by persistent supply shortages. While macroeconomic forces like inflation and population growth contribute to this shortage, local regulatory barriers are often a more immediate and fixable […]
The Role of Parking Access in the Affordable Housing Crisis

The Role of Parking Access in the Affordable Housing Crisis The affordable housing crisis in North America has many contributing factors, ranging from land costs to zoning laws and regulatory requirements. Among these, parking access requirements have emerged as a critical and often overlooked obstacle to the development of affordable housing. The mandates for off-street […]
Edmonton, Halifax, Calgary receive Top 5 Ranking in National CHBA Study

Edmonton, Halifax, Calgary receive Top 5 Ranking in National CHBA Study ‘Powered by POSSE’ Cities Lead the Way in Municipal Housing Benchmarks The Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) has released its 2024 Municipal Benchmarking Study, a data-driven analysis measuring the efficiency of Canada’s major cities in facilitating affordable housing supplies. The study ranks 23 municipalities across Canada […]
Achieving Affordable Housing and Economic Development Goals in Unison

Achieving Affordable Housing and Economic Development Goals in Unison Civic governments across North America are striving to balance their goals for economic growth alongside the escalating need for affordable housing. Historically viewed as often conflicting agendas, there is now a growing consensus that the attainment of sufficient affordable housing stocks is a key driver in […]
Emerging Policy Wins in the Affordable Housing Crisis

Emerging Policy Wins for the Affordable Housing Crisis The Affordable Housing Crisis continues to dominate the headlines in both the United States and Canada. While this is an indication that the crisis is still escalating in some cities, there are also encouraging indicators that the public policy response to the crisis is starting to achieve […]
More Key Outcomes from a Successful Permitting System Modernization

More Key Outcomes from a Successful Permitting System Modernization The pressing need to transform regulatory processes to alleviate the Affordable Housing Crisis is increasingly resulting in loosely defined ‘low code’ mandates to equip rapid and widespread digital transformation. Although admirable in their ambitions, the recent increase of initiatives sacrificing definitive project deliverables in favor of […]
The Key Outcomes From a Successful Permitting System Modernization

The Key Outcomes From a Successful Permitting System Modernization Accelerated by the pandemic, the movement to digitally transform government services is so universal now that those agencies pursuing rapid adoption scenarios are running the risk of the advance hype falling far short of the bottom-line results from such transformations. This is particularly true in the […]
Encouraging News from the Frontlines of the Housing Crisis

Encouraging News from the Frontlines of the Housing Crisis In recent years, the Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver specifically have represented the ‘front lines’ of the affordable housing crisis. A 2023 analysis ranked British Columbia as the province with the highest cost of living in Canada with Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and […]
Federal Funding for Commercial Conversion Initiatives

Federal Funding for Commercial Conversion Initiatives With commercial real estate inventory increasing at precisely the same time that affordable residential housing stocks are dwindling, government leaders are embracing a solution that maximizes the opportunities of this unique market dynamic, Adaptive Reuse, otherwise known as Commercial Conversion. To support commercial conversion efforts nationwide, the US Federal […]
Adaptive Reuse: A Solution to the Affordable Housing Crisis?

Adaptive Reuse: A Solution to the Affordable Housing Crisis? 2023 has been a disappointing year for those hoping to see substantial improvements in the Affordable Housing Crisis. In the US, home affordability is the worst it has been since 1984 while in Canada, the situation is arguably worse with experts estimating that it will take […]