Housing Affordability

If you are in urgent housing need, please visit BC Housing

Housing Affordability Strategy (HAS)

The City’s Housing Affordability Strategy (HAS) adopted in December 2015 provides a vision, objectives, policy directions and specific actions to address housing affordability in Coquitlam.

The HAS also recognizes that local government’s mandate and resources to address housing affordability are limited without partnerships and funding from other levels of government. The City’s goal is to work with partners from the non-profit, private and public sectors to ensure that a wide variety of housing types, sizes, tenures and prices can be offered in Coquitlam in the years to come.

Subscribe to receive Housing Affordability Strategy (HAS) email updates.

Read the Housing Affordability Strategy (HAS) Implementation Progress Report and 2023-24 Work Program (PDF) and view the 2022 Progress Snapshot Infographic (PDF).

Housing Needs Report

Municipalities and regional districts across British Columbia are required to complete housing needs reports before April 2022. As a result, Coquitlam is developing a Housing Needs Report to help us better understand the current and future housing needs of our community.

The Housing Needs Report will include a combination of statistical data from sources such as Statistics Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), BC Housing and others, as well as community and stakeholder input to create a comprehensive picture of housing needs in the community. When complete, the Housing Needs Report, along with most recently collected information, will be considered when amending the Citywide Official Community Plan.

Council-in-Committee received the report for information on Monday February 28, 2022.

Tenant Relocation Policy

On November 22, 2021, council adopted an update to the Tenant Relocation Policy. You can read the updated policy here (PDF).

The renewed policy brings this work in line with current practice, creating better, clearer expectations for developers by providing consistent rules, criteria and requirements on assistance to be provided to tenants. The revisions to the policy include requirements for increased advance notification, support for moving expenses, and a new Renter Information Package (PDF) describing policy requirements and compensation in plain language. 

Winter Shelter Program

A winter shelter program will be operating at local churches from mid-January to March 31, 2022. This will provide additional warm places to sleep during cold winter nights for people in the Tri-Cities who are experiencing, or who are at risk of homelessness and is a long-standing program that has successfully operated in the Tri-Cities during winter months over the last number of years.

Shelter operations will be as specified in the Temporary Use Permit for the program (approved by City of Coquitlam Council on November 1, 2021). 

The Progressive Housing Society will be operating the shelter program.