Housing Needs Reports
In 2020, The Regional District of Nanaimo completed a Regional Housing Needs Report in response to amendments to the Local Government Act (LGA) requiring local governments to complete such reports every five years. The reports include collecting and analyzing various housing data to help communities better understand their current and future housing needs.
In June 2024, the Province updated legislative requirements for Housing Needs Reports, including requiring all local governments to complete an Interim Housing Needs Report by January 1, 2025. The Interim Housing Needs Report must include the number of housing units required to meet the current and anticipated needs for five and twenty years, as calculated using the detailed methodology in the Provincial Housing Needs Report Regulation.
The total housing unit numbers identified in the Interim Housing Needs Report were calculated using the above-noted required Provincial methodology and do not factor in the local context that affects the potential number of units identified for each Electoral Area.
Factors such as limited servicing availability, local context, and environmental constraints were not factored into the calculations in the Interim Housing Needs Report. Any future updates to the RDN's Official Community Plans or zoning bylaws would require further analysis of housing taking into account the local context, environmental constraints and servicing availability.
- Interim Housing Needs Report (2024)
- Housing Needs Report Executive Summary (2020)
- Regional Housing Needs Report (2020)