Housing

The City has updated its Housing Needs Report to better understand the housing landscape in Maple Ridge. It will be used as a foundation for planning and decision making to address existing and projected housing needs.

Housing Needs in Maple Ridge

The 2024 Housing Needs Report, indicated that Maple Ridge is projected to develop rapidly over the next 20 years, driven largely by community growth. 28,000 new units would be required by the year 2044, including 6,100 new rental units. The Report also highlighted that the housing crisis facing the province, and particularly the Metro Vancouver region, has impacted a broad cross-section of demographics in Maple Ridge, and includes those who own and rent. Restricted housing choices disproportionately affects equity deserving groups (especially seniors, indigenous, one-person households and visible minority households), those with lower household incomes, and those already experiencing core housing need.

In summary, the 2024 Housing Needs Report recommends that attention be targeted towards:

Affordable rental units
Housing for families
Housing for seniors
Housing for indigenous households
Housing near transit
Addressing homelessness

Housing Strategy

The ‘City of Maple Ridge Housing Strategy: Draft Road Map and Actions’, prepared by Urban Matters, was received by Council for information on September 24, 2024. It presents a suite of possible strategies and initiatives that could be considered to better address the current and projected housing needs, as outlined in the 2024 Housing Needs Report. These suggestions would be reviewed and those relevant to Maple Ridge would be incorporated for study in the 2024 Proposed Housing Action Plan.

New Provincial Housing Legislation

Find out more about how the City of Maple Ridge is responding to the new Provincial Housing Legislation changes.

2024 Proposed Housing Action Plan

The 2024 Proposed Housing Action Plan was submitted to Council for information on Nov 12, 2024. It highlights the key priorities and next steps that the City would be pursuing to address housing needs in Maple Ridge, and introduces new initiatives to better address affordable inclusive housing and meet the projected housing needs in Maple Ridge over the longer term.

The 2024 Proposed Housing Action Plan aligns with the initiatives in the New Provincial Housing Legislation. Informed by the City's latest housing needs report, this updated Housing Action Plan builds on the housing initiatives that the City has been working on over the last decade previously outlined in the City's 2014 Housing Action Plan and implementation framework endorsed by Council in 2015.

The key priorities and initiatives of the 2024 Housing Action Plan fall under 4 broader strategy pillars:

Prioritize needed forms of housing (including rental housing and housing for equity deserving groups)
Harness regulatory and financial tools
Streamline planning and development processes
Craft a land governance strategy

The City will explore these strategies and initiatives and assess their feasibility and applicability in the context of Maple Ridge.