Calgary council approves its refreshed housing strategy for 2026–2030

At its regular meeting on September 22, 2026, Calgary City Council approved Home is Here Refresh: The City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy 2026–2030 (report CD2026-0589) by a vote of 9–6, according to the meeting minutes. Councillors Jamieson, Tyers, Chabot, Wyness, Johnston and McLean voted against.

The five outcomes

The City says the goal is “to ensure that all Calgarians have an affordable place to call home.” The strategy is organized around five outcomes:

1. Increase the supply of housing to meet demand and increase affordability.
2. Support affordable housing providers to deliver services that make a positive impact.
3. Enable the City’s housing subsidiaries to improve service delivery.
4. Ensure diverse housing choice to meet the needs of equity-deserving populations.
5. Address the affordable housing needs of Indigenous people living in Calgary.

Under the first outcome, the City lists tools such as selling City land below market value to non-profits, and its Secondary Suite Incentive Program, which offers qualifying homeowners up to $10,000 to build and register a secondary suite.

Also at the same meeting

• Downtown density bonusing: council directed administration to remove affordable-housing contributions from the density bonusing system in the Greater Downtown, develop a density exemption for non-market housing, and report back by Q2 2027.
• Green Line: council selected a surface alignment along 10 Avenue and 2 Street SW for the downtown segment.

Our take: the strategy matters to owners mostly through programs like the suite incentive. If you are thinking about adding a legal suite, ask us about the numbers before you start.

Why the City says it needs a strategy

According to the City, one in five Calgary households cannot afford their housing, and Calgary expects to grow to a city of two million in the next few years. The refreshed strategy updates the original Home is Here plan and combines short-term measures with others that will need more research, public participation and further council decisions.

What has already been done

Non-market homes from two City programs under the Housing Strategy

The City reports that it has sold 17 sites below market value to non-profits, creating 835 new homes, and awarded $30.7 million in the first round of its Housing Capital Initiative for 480 non-market homes. Council also approved a property tax exemption for non-profit non-market housing providers, so they can keep rents as low as possible. Two City-owned sites have been set aside for family housing projects that will house over 100 families with children who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

The City’s two housing subsidiaries play a large role. Calgary Housing Company manages over 10,000 affordable units with more than 25,000 tenants. Attainable Homes Calgary, a non-profit owned by the City since 2009, provides non-market ownership options for Calgary’s workforce.

The first outcome in practice

Increasing supply, the first outcome, has three parts: make more City-owned land, buildings and strata space available for market, non-market, subsidized and co-op housing in all communities; use the City’s funding tools to leverage partnerships with other governments; and amend and streamline planning policy and processes to allow for diverse housing. The City says some measures will be completed in the short term, while others will come back to council for separate decisions.