Council approves refreshed 10-year plan to improve housing stability, reduce homelessness

Council today approved a refreshed 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan. The long-term roadmap will also rely on annual work plans to help measure progress on efforts to improve housing stability and support residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The plan responds to growing pressures in Ottawa’s housing and homelessness system. It strengthens coordination across housing, health and community services while working alongside Indigenous partners. It expands housing loss prevention efforts and improves pathways from homelessness to stable housing. The refreshed plan maintains its core priorities of ensuring everyone has a home, providing supports people need, and strengthening collaboration across the system.

The plan moves away from longer planning cycles, relying instead on annual workplans to enable the City and its partners to respond more quickly to emerging needs. It also introduces a new income-based definition of housing affordability, shifting away from market rents tied to unit sizes.

The plan builds on progress achieved since it was last refreshed in 2020. With approximately $1 billion in combined municipal, provincial and federal investments, the City and its partners have: 

• Created 554 new affordable homes
• Added 329 supportive homes
• Created 700 new transitional housing spaces
• Provided 3,279 new housing benefits for low-income households
• Preserved more than 25,000 community housing units
• Enhanced outreach and drop-in programs
• Launched new prevention and diversion initiatives
• Purchased new sites for future supportive and affordable housing, including 1245 Kilborn Place 

Mayor Sutcliffe tabled a motion asking staff to consider funding options as part of Budget 2027 to create a Supportive Housing Fund dedicated to building and operating supportive housing units. Itwas carried unanimously. This Fund could include any available funding from the 2025 Close of Capital Projects report. The investment would be used to advance the delivery and operation of the 550 supportive units identified in the 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan and double the rate at which supportive housing units are currently built, delivering homes to all 450 residents on the waitlist within five years instead of 10. Staff will also look to leverage publicly-owned lands to reduce costs for new supportive housing.

The refreshed plan was co-designed with the Housing and Homelessness Leadership Table, a working group of 18 sector leaders representing housing providers, shelters, service agencies, Indigenous partners and people with lived and living experience.

Council supports new licensing rules for food businesses

Council approved updates to the Licensing By-law to better reflect how the food industry operates, supporting its continued growth and cutting red tape for small food businesses.

Food premises that offer entertainment, such as live music or dancing, will see a more streamlined licensing process. The updated rules will allow operators to apply for a single combined licence, making it easier to offer entertainment as part of their service and supporting a vibrant hospitality sector.

The updated rules:

• Improve accountability and transparency for shared commercial kitchens
• Support home-based entrepreneurs that prepare only low risk foods, like bread and cookies
• Extend current licences until the end of May 2026, when the new rules will take effect

2026 tax classes and ratios approved

Council approved the 2026 Tax Policy and Other Revenue Matters report that presents recommendations regarding property taxes that Council is required to address each year. These decisions determine how the previously approved tax levy is distributed amongst the various property tax classes for the 2026 taxation year. 

Property taxes remain quite low in Ottawa. Using the BMA Municipal Benchmark Study, Ottawa is described as having the lowest property tax levy among Ontario’s ten largest municipalities. According to that study, a benchmark home in Ottawa pays a total of $5,490 in property taxes annually—almost $2,000 less than Toronto for a comparable home.

The approved recommendations would support renters, businesses, farms and Ottawa’s local economic development. Highlights include:

• Reducing the multi-residential tax ratio to 1.2 will permanently reduce taxes paid by the multi-residential class by $8.4 million, or almost 3.5 per cent for each property. This tax reduction will trigger a Provincially mandated Automatic Rent Reduction for about 57,000 tenants in multi-unit apartment buildings of approximately 0.7 per cent on January 1, 2027, lowering an average monthly rent of $2,000 by $13.90.
• A 15-per-cent reduction for the small business subclass of commercial and industrial properties will provide the small business community with $12.6 million in municipal tax savings.
• Farm properties remain taxed at 20 per cent of the residential rate, equating to tax relief of $12.3M across 3,600 certified farms, supporting rural affordability and farm viability.
• The City is continuing its tax deferral programs for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, as well as the Charitable Rebate Program, the Farm Grant Program and various tax reductions for subclasses.

The City would contribute $1.4 million of additional growth identified from the application of the notional tax rate adjustment to the tax stabilization reserve.

Council adds priority measures to improve travel on Bank Street

Council approved measures to improve transit along Bank Street, between Highway 417 and the Bank Street Canal Bridge, targeted to launch in summer 2027.

Changes include adding four permanent segments of 24-hour bus-only lanes and piloting time-of-day bus-only lanes. The work will also remove 17 on-street parking spaces to help move transit more efficiently. The permanent 24-hour bus lanes are planned:

• Northbound, between Regent Street and Fourth Avenue
• Northbound, south of Aylmer Avenue
• Southbound, between Fourth and Thornton Avenues
• Southbound, between Holmwood Avenue and Wilton Crescent

The pilot bus-only lanes will apply during the weekday morning and afternoon peak periods:

• Northbound, from 7 to 9 am
• Southbound, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm

The pilot will start in June 2027 and run for one year. As part of the pilot’s monitoring plan, staff will consult regularly with the Glebe Community Association and the Glebe Business Improvement Area and gather data on sales impacts, time saved for commuters, and changes in foot traffic. Staff will report back on the results every six months via a memo and will include data from the northbound lane changes previously implemented in Old Ottawa South.

Bank Street will also see targeted cycling and pedestrian improvements along this stretch, and the City will look for ways to improve north-south cycling routes parallel to Bank Street.

Council renews funding for rural clean water projects 

Council  renewed the Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program for another five-year term. The program provides cost-share grants to farmers and rural landowners for projects that protect surface and groundwater quality. 

With an annual budget of $200,000, applicants are eligible for grants of up to $15,000 for 19 different types of projects. In the last five years, the program supported 271 projects with grants totalling more than $671,000. Landowners also invested another $1 million for those projects. The renewed program will add living snow fences as a new eligible project type, to help reduce blowing snow, improve road safety, reduce soil erosion and improve wildlife habitat. Learn more about the program and how to apply at the City’s Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program web page.

Staff to review implementation approach for building new sidewalks 

Council also passed a motion directing staff to undertake a review of how the City builds new sidewalks through its Transportation Master Plan and integrated renewal program to improve accessibility, connectivity, and safety for pedestrians. Staff will include input from the Accessibility Advisory Committee and persons with disabilities and report back during the next Term of Council.

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