Providing affordable housing allows individuals and families with diverse incomes to have access to housing.
Affordable housing is typically defined as housing that costs 30% or less of pre-tax household income. Subsidies may be required for certain households to meet this affordability level. Affordable housing can be subsidized or non-subsidized and include for example, housing types such as non-market housing with support services, housing that requires ongoing subsidies to reduce rents below market levels, and purpose-built and secondary market rental.
Core Housing Need, a national housing indicator, measures the degree to which housing meets three standards:
- Adequacy (not requiring any major repairs)
- Affordability (where housing costs less than 30% of total before tax income)
- Suitability (where the dwelling has enough bedrooms for the size and make-up of the household, in accordance with the National Occupancy Standards)
A household in core housing need means they are living in unsuitable, inadequate or unaffordable dwelling with no alternative.
In 2021, approximately 18% of Coquitlam households were in Core Housing Need. Over the next ten years, households in Core Housing Need are expected to grow by 5%.
Affordability is the greatest challenge among the Core Housing Need indicators, with 29% of all Coquitlam households spending 30% or more of their annual income on housing (Census 2021).
The Housing Affordability Strategy (PDF) provides a vision, objectives, policy directions and specific actions to address housing affordability in Coquitlam.
The City’s Affordable Housing Reserve Fund (PDF) is an important financial tool that contributes to affordable housing solutions in Coquitlam; helping to increase the supply of housing options for low and low-to-moderate income households.
