Middlesex County Attainable Housing Review

Fundamental to creating healthy and inclusive communities is the availability of a variety of housing options to meet the differing needs of current and future residents. Similar to communities across Ontario and Canada, Middlesex County is experiencing housing pressures due to changing demographics and market trends.

Access to a range of housing forms, including attainable, affordable and accessible housing, is a priority for the County.  In order to better understand the current supply and demand of housing across the County and develop strategies aimed at ensuring a broad array of housing options are available to meet the full spectrum of needs of residents in Middlesex, the County undertook an Attainable Housing Review.

The objectives of the review were to: examine the needs across the entire housing continuum; identify gaps in the provision of housing; prepare a municipal strategy to meet current and future needs. The project involved data collection and analysis related to current local housing strategies, existing housing data, roles and responsibilities related to housing, best practices and comparison to other municipalities, as well as an extensive community and stakeholder engagement process. The Final Report can be found at Middlesex County Attainable Housing Review Report.

The Housing Continuum

Community and Stakeholder Engagement

The Attainable Housing Review incorporated community and stakeholder engagement activities, the findings of which are outlined in the What We Are Hearing Report. Through extensive conversations and feedback from residents and stakeholders through focus group sessions, questionnaires, community round tables, and interviews with persons with lived experience, several key messages, and priorities regarding the future of housing in Middlesex County emerged. This work informed the vision, goals, targets, and recommended actions.

Comparator Municipal Engagement and Best Practices Review

To gain a comprehensive understanding of local housing challenges, as well as the roles, responsibilities, and best practices implemented by similar municipalities, interviews were conducted with local municipal staff, City of London staff, representatives from nine comparator municipalities, and organizations within the municipal sector. The findings are summarized in the Local and Comparator Municipal Engagement Report.

Housing Roles and Responsibilities

The Housing and Homelessness System in the Province of Ontario is complex and requires the participation of four levels of government, in addition to the not-for-profit and private sectors. The Examination of Best Practices in Housing Roles Report reviews the responsibilities of the Federal Government, the Provincial Government, the City of London as the Service System Manager, Municipalities, Community Housing Providers and the Private Sector.