Guelph city council and staff are holding a special meeting next Tuesday as they work to address the housing crisis, in what will be the “first step of many,” according to Mayor Cam Guthrie.
An orientation and education workshop will be held on July 11 at 7 p.m. Although it’s only open to council and staff, the meeting will be live streamed for interested community members to watch from home.
The goal is to bring everyone up to speed on what staff, council and the County of Wellington have already done to address the housing crisis and what they’re currently working on. It will also provide staff and council with a chance to brainstorm what else can be done and if anything can be done faster, said Guthrie.
Getting everyone on the same page will help determine what the next moves are in addressing the housing crisis, he said.
“It really sets the foundation for what's next. And we can't really go to what's next until we know where we are,” he said.
However, Guthrie said solutions are not only going to be found between staff and council, but from within the community.
“This is a community crisis, and so I really want people to send in their thoughts. And then I will send that off to staff to compile and consider.” He said people can send in their ideas by emailing him at [email protected], and that there will be opportunities beyond the workshop for people to share ideas with council and staff before decisions are made on the 2024 to 2027 budget.
“And then the other part, of course, is shared ideas between all council and staff to talk and discuss what more could we do under our jurisdiction,” he said.
Guthrie called for the meeting to be held last month, noting he believes more can be done at the city level.
Major challenges they’re facing include addressing homelessness and increasing supportive and affordable housing, he said, as well as being able to “unlock lands” to accommodate more growth, and making sure there is extra staffing within the planning and building departments to speed up applications, customer service and inquiries regarding housing.
“We have a perfect storm coming in the fall with budget time, because not only do we have to keep the lights on and the buses running, but then on top of that, we have this housing crisis that we know we must attend to,” he said.
It’s going to take financial investments and choices about “what we might have to look at pausing or stopping or deferring within the budget to address the crisis. Those are the hard conversations you’re going to have as a council, but I’m really supportive of the direction we’re taking.
“I really think it's gonna be a very good thing for … staff to be telling the story a bit better about what's going on, but then really focus us in the next several months to drill down on what type of decisions we need to make as a council to address some of those gaps,” he said.
The live stream can be accessed here on July 11 at 7 p.m. The slide deck for the presentation can be found here.
