Mississauga approves $44 million program to encourage more affordable rental housing

The aim of the CIP is to help increase Mississauga’s supply of affordable and below-market rental units in multi-unit buildings and gentle density rental units including basement apartments, garden suites, triplexes and fourplexes in lower density areas.

A CIP is a tool under the Ontario Planning Act that allows municipalities to provide incentives like grants and loans to help encourage development.

The focus of this CIP is to increase the supply of rental units affordable for moderate-income renter households earning $54,000 to $96,000 in household income. The City noted, however, that the CIP is not designed to deliver low-income units and that homes for low-income households are built and operated by the Region of Peel.

The City says the CIP will be implemented as a grant program and that applications will be accepted beginning this fall through 2027 or until the program funding is fully allocated.

According to the City, market rents in Mississauga exceed affordable rent levels for even moderate-income renters and that renter households require a yearly gross income of almost $100,000 to afford a one-bedroom apartment in the city.

As a result, the City’s CIP will help developers, landowners and homeowners offset some of the costs required to deliver new units at affordable rates.

Mississauga’s CIP was developed in consultation with industry stakeholders and is designed to work with funding sources from other levels of government for new market rental and affordable rental construction. Staff expect that the program will deliver more than 300 new affordable rental and gentle density units over three years.

The CIP will be funded, in part, through funds received from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

“I am committed to finding ways to get more rental housing built in Mississauga. It’s a key area of focus for our Council, City staff and my Housing Task Force. We must use every tool we have to get more homes built. I encourage every homeowner and developer who wants to build affordable rental units in Mississauga to come forward and take advantage of this incentive program. The time to get building is now,” said Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish.