Summary#

Council approved Home is Here Refresh: The City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy 2026–2030, refreshing the City’s existing housing strategy rather than creating a new law or a separate housing program. The stated goal is to guide City work and coordination with partners to improve housing supply, choice and affordability; the strategy does not guarantee those results.

• The refreshed strategy keeps the existing vision and outcomes but reduces its actions from 98 to 10.
• It refines measures of success and adds targets where appropriate. City staff will report on implementation to the Community Development Committee each year.
• City staff say the strategy is intended to guide work across City departments and with housing partners, including other orders of government.
• The decision does not itself approve new capital or operating spending, or create a new application or approval process for residents or housing providers.

What it means for you#

• Calgary residents: This is a plan for City action, not a new housing benefit or a change to your rights as a renter or homeowner. It does not itself provide a home, rent support or funding for home modifications.
• Housing providers and developers: The strategy sets City direction, but the material does not establish a new funding offer, application process or faster approval pathway.
• City staff: The approved strategy gives staff a shorter list of actions and updated measures to use in their work, with annual reporting to the Community Development Committee.
• Taxpayers: City staff report no new capital or operating impact from approving this refresh. That does not establish the cost of later housing projects or future funding decisions.

Money#

City staff report no anticipated financial impact and no capital or operating impact from this decision.

• The strategy includes targets reflected in the City’s 10-Year Capital Plan, but the supplied report does not give a new spending amount for the refresh.
• The RESAC Non-Market Housing Committee cited a target of supporting 3,000 new non-market homes a year and urged Council to commit more resources. That committee’s requested funding and land measures are not shown as approved by this decision.

What is unclear#

• The supplied material does not include the text of the refreshed strategy’s 10 actions or all its measures and targets, so their specific scope cannot be verified here.
• It is unclear how the City will fund or carry out the actions over time, or how the strategy’s targets will translate into completed homes.
• The engagement report says feedback called for more support for Indigenous-led housing, existing affordable homes, housing operations and accessibility changes. The supplied material does not show whether or how each request appears in the approved strategy.
• The Council minutes say the motion was moved by Councillor Johnston but also list Johnston among the six members voting against. The recorded vote was 9 to 6; the minutes list Councillors Jamieson, Tyers, Chabot, Wyness, Johnston and McLean as opposed.

Case for#

• City staff say housing pressures remain high: from 2019 to 2025, rents rose 48 per cent and home sale prices rose 40 per cent, while incomes rose 12 per cent.
• A shorter list of actions and revised measures could make the City’s priorities and progress easier to track.
• The Council Advisory Committee on Housing supported the refresh, saying a clear strategy can help coordinate partners and position Calgary to seek provincial and federal investment.

Case against#

• Reducing 98 actions to 10 may leave important work less visible or specific. The supplied report does not show how each former action was handled.
• The RESAC Non-Market Housing Committee supported the strategy but asked for more: priority consideration of surplus City land for non-market housing, predictable City funding and a faster approval pathway. This decision does not approve those requests.
• A public submission urged the City to consider funding or incentives for accessibility changes to existing homes. The supplied material does not show whether the strategy includes that approach.
• Councillors Tyers and Johnston opposed the committee’s recommendation. The Council vote record lists six opponents, but its record of who moved the motion conflicts with that list.