Editorial: Owen Sound’s Record Construction Value Can’t Buy Affordable Housing
The City of Owen Sound is celebrating $214.5M in construction this year. But without affordable housing requirements and intentional community planning, residents are destined to be left behind.
EDITORIAL OPINION
Owen Sound City Hall is popping champagne over $214.5 million in construction this year — more than triple the city’s 2020 high. They’re calling it “unprecedented.”
But let’s be clear: while record-breaking construction may look good on a balance sheet, it doesn’t put roofs over residents’ heads.
Out-of-town developers — some of the same ones who have been sitting on local land for decades — are moving now because the profit potential has never been higher.
This is not a plan. This is a land rush.
The average rent for a listed Owen Sound unit this September is $1,513 for a studio, $1,775 for a one-bedroom, and $2,045 for a two-bedroom. Zillow puts the overall average across all property types at $1,945.
Meanwhile, the median household income in Owen Sound was $71,000 before taxes as of 2021 — about $5,917 per month. At that income level:
A one-bedroom at $1,775 consumes 30% of pre-tax household income, right at the threshold of housing poverty.
A two-bedroom unit at $2,045 consumes 35%, which is well into housing poverty.
And that’s based on the median household. For retail and food service workers, frontline healthcare workers, elderly residents, and even many skilled professionals (especially those in single-income households), Owen Sound’s market rents are simply out of reach.
Residents, social service agencies, and non-profit organizations have been sounding the alarm about this crisis for years.
Reports, deputations, and surveys — from RentSafe Owen Sound to Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force to the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay — have made the same point again and again: costs of housing are rising faster than incomes, housing conditions are deteriorating, and too many people are being pushed into precarious living situations.
Despite repeated warnings, City Hall continues to treat development as a singular issue measured in dollars and permits, rather than a complex responsibility to ensure residents have safe, stable homes in a city being reshaped around them.
The Affordable Housing Disconnect at City Hall
Mayor Ian Boddy calls this development and construction boom “a powerful sign of confidence in our city.” Yet just last summer, when the subject of affordable housing came up at council, he said he didn’t “know how that fits into anything we do.”
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That disconnect matters because growth and affordability aren’t separate issues — they are two sides of the same coin. Every new project that breaks ground affects the housing market and community as a whole, whether by pushing up land values, reshaping neighbourhoods, or setting new benchmarks for rents.
According to Grey County, a 2024 point-in-time count revealed that 375 individuals are experiencing homelessness, including 253 individuals classified as chronically homeless.
Grey County Calls for Federal & Provincial Action on Systemic Failures Fuelling Homelessness Crisis
Additionally, Grey County’s subsidized housing waitlist has seen a sharp increase from 1,517 applicants in 2022 to 2,230 in 2024.
If City Council and the City Manager claim credit for record-breaking growth, why won’t they also take responsibility for building a livable city?
Why Developers Are Moving Now
Developers aren’t suddenly building here out of charity or civic pride. They’re building because conditions are finally ripe for maximum profit: high rents, scarce supply, and a city government eager to fast-track approvals.
City Manager Tim Simmonds put it this way:
“This level of growth doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of years of effort to align our staff and foster a culture of ‘getting to yes.’”
It’s quite a claim that a cultural transformation at City Hall is what unlocked this record-setting boom. For decades, Owen Sound had a reputation as a difficult place for developers to work with — slow approvals, siloed departments, shifting requirements. Now the City says those barriers are gone. But where’s the evidence?
What proof has been offered that this surge is anything other than the Toronto housing market steadily marching northward, as it has been for years, combined with post-COVID construction cost inflation?
Developers have been land-banking here for decades, waiting for the conditions to turn. Those conditions — investors priced out elsewhere, rents climbing here, short supply, profits at their peak — have finally arrived.
Now that the land rush is on, what is Council doing to ensure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who already live here?
Residents Have Been Clear on Their Expectations of Local Leadership
This isn’t just a media critique. Residents themselves have repeatedly demanded better.
The City of Owen Sound has spent two years and $200,000 (so far) talking about its “Vision 2050.” More than 300 respondents explicitly called for affordable housing, mixed-income developments, and supportive housing to be added to council’s list of priorities.
Clearly, ratepayers feel housing is a City responsibility.
Yet those voices were buried in a two-page summary until the full results were pried loose under a $517.50 freedom of information request.
It is within Council’s power to act. The City can:
Use zoning tools to require a mix of unit types and affordability levels in new developments.
Negotiate community benefits agreements so major projects deliver more than just private profit.
Strengthen bylaw enforcement to address substandard rental conditions in the housing stock we already have.
Partner with non-profits and upper-tier governments on supportive and transitional housing, instead of washing its hands of the issue.
Demand transparency from developers about project timelines, unit mixes, and affordability commitments.
Explore social finance tools to mobilize private and municipal capital for affordable housing projects, as recommended by the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay.
Prioritize non-market and near-market housing models that can be held in community ownership, in perpetuity, rather than lost to speculative investment.
Put bluntly: the tools and strategies are out there. If Owen Sound wants to call this moment “unprecedented,” then it should also be unprecedented in its approach to demanding that growth deliver affordability, not just higher permit fees — and higher costs of living, as a result.
Other communities aren’t just counting building permits; they’re setting clear priorities for affordability and striking a balance between growth and livability. The Five Ways Home framework, endorsed by housing and planning experts across Ontario, lays out a roadmap:
build in the right places
build a wider variety of housing types
build smarter and faster
invest heavily in non-market housing
and make housing part of livable communities.
Each one of these points maps directly to an unrealized opportunity for the City of Owen Sound.
What is City Planning Without Housing?
The Institute of Southern Georgian Bay’s newly released case study on affordable housing identifies three critical areas for local intervention:
focused municipal and county knowledge and development practice;
increased access to capital for affordable acquisition and development; and
preferential support for non-market housing that can be held in the community, in perpetuity.
The first point is especially relevant here. Last year, Grey County proposed centralizing planning services to address inefficiencies and improve consistency across its nine municipalities. Owen Sound pushed back, opting out to keep control of its own planning.
If Owen Sound insists on planning autonomy, why won’t it accept that how residents are housed is an essential part of planning? You cannot take credit for what’s working while disavowing responsibility for the human consequences of those decisions.
Improving the Housing We Already Have
New builds aren’t the only story. The housing stock Owen Sound already has is failing too many residents.
The RentSafe Owen Sound Collaborative’s landlord and tenant surveys, presented to City Council in November 2024, revealed just how fragile the rental market is here:
74% of our rental buildings are more than 40 years old.
87% of tenants said they wanted to leave their rental due to poor conditions but couldn’t.
77% requested maintenance in the past year, but only 35% saw their issues resolved.
Related:
One landlord put it bluntly: “The reason substandard housing exists in Owen Sound is simply the fact the City allows it.”
This is the reality for many residents. It is not addressed by celebrating permit numbers.
Growth Is Inevitable. Managing It Is a Choice.
Let’s be honest, growth was always inevitable. Toronto buyers are priced out of the Muskokas. Sauble Beach and Tobermory are bursting at the seams every summer. The secret is out: Owen Sound was always going to be next. We didn’t need to send cool pyjamas to Toronto to put us on the map.
In fact, our growth has lagged behind neighbouring communities… maybe it’s time we caught up. For years, places like Orangeville, Port Elgin, and Collingwood have outpaced Owen Sound, drawing new residents and investment while our city watched from the sidelines.
But catching up without a plan for affordability will only deepen the crisis. Growth that amplifies and deepens our existing challenges — spiking rents, speculative development, and workers priced out — isn’t progress.
If City Council and the City Manager choose to view themselves as the architects of record-breaking growth, they must accept that they are also responsible for building a livable city, and that it is within their power to do so.
The question now is whether Council will drive this growth in a direction that serves residents, or stand by while it pushes them out.
What Else the City Didn’t Say
The City’s press release celebrates record construction values, but leaves out many critical details and seems to conflate some data points:
Affordability: No information on what kinds of units are being built or whether any will be affordable to the people who live and work here.
Timelines: No clear answers on when new housing will actually come online.
Life lease ≠ affordability: The 30-unit Bayshore Terrace project requires significant buy-in, pricing out most households in need.
Retail expansion: Bigger box stores are touted as “growth” while downtown storefront vacancies and safety issues persist.
Inflated totals: Fire repairs at Rockview Apartments are included in the $214.5M tally — restoration work, not new development.
Fast-tracking approvals: Cloudpermit makes it easier for developers, but the City hasn’t said how it will balance speed with accountability on affordability, quality, or safety.
“Quality of life” claims: City leaders say these projects will make Owen Sound more vibrant and sustainable yet provide no data on affordability, livability, or who actually benefits.