(Photo: Ottawa Community Housing’s Mosaïq Phase 2 under construction near Booth and Gladstone in Ottawa. When complete, there will be 273 new homes within five buildings.)
(This post was originally published on my Substack newsletter.)
Over the past few weeks, the City of Ottawa has released several reports and datasets on housing and homelessness in our city. Here’s a quick round-up:
1) 2024 Housing Needs Assessment – This report describes the current and projected housing needs of Ottawa in the coming years. All municipalities with more than 30,000 people are required to complete an HNA to be eligible for federal funding related to housing and infrastructure. Some top level findings:
- Ottawa is experiencing a substantial shift toward rental housing, driven largely by declining access to homeownership.
- Housing affordability in Ottawa is declining, driven by rental costs rising substantially faster than household incomes.
- Ottawa’s restricted rental market and rising eviction rates push more households into increasingly unstable housing situations.
- Older adults, single-parent families, and low-income households in Ottawa face growing vulnerability within the housing market.
- Indigenous people are over-representation in homelessness, and racialized groups over-represented in housing instability.
2) 2024 Housing and Homelessness Plan Progress Update – an annual report showing progress so far in the 10-year plan, which spans 2020-2030. Staff are now updating the plan and are inviting public feedback through the Engage Ottawa site.
3) Housing approvals dashboard – Staff launched new and more detailed dashboard in late July. It shows a running tally of housing approvals, building permits issued, and CMHC housing starts. It’s broken down by quarter and there’s data available ward-by-ward as well. There’s also tracking of approval timelines for zoning and site plan applications.
4) Finally, I’ve updated my quarterly housing affordability dashboard. I’ve taken out the data around housing starts because it’s now easily accessible in the housing approvals dashboard. My City Council colleague Jeff Leiper also keeps track with some handy charts at kitchissippiward.ca.
Links to sources
- CMHC Housing Market Information Portal
- Zonda Urban Q2-2025 report summary
- Rentals.ca National Rent Report
- Statistics Canada Canadian Income Survey (via CMHC)
- City of Ottawa Housing Needs Assessment Dashboard
Please contact me with any questions about data or sources. Does anyone know of a more up-to-date source of household income data?