Abbotsford is a growing city, and as our population increases, we’re doing our part to make sure all our residents have a place to call home.
Throughout City Council’s 2022-2026 term, we have been working with our Planning and Development Services department, with help from the feedback they receive from the public, to increase our housing supply. As this term of Council is set to complete this year, we’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate some major advancements from the past four years.
- Official Community Plan (OCP) update: In December 2025, after more than two years of planning, we adopted the new OCP. The update emphasized increasing housing supply and diversity by creating more opportunities for apartments, townhouses and small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH) in priority areas. The number of housing units enabled by the OCP satisfies the City’s 2024 Interim Housing Needs Report’s target of 37,185 units in the next 20 years.
- Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF): The City was approved for up to $25.6 million in federal HAF funding, which aims to remove barriers so homes can be built faster. In May 2023, Council approved the HAF Action Plan, and as of last month all HAF initiatives are complete and we’ve exceeded the number of affordable and multi-family housing units expected to be permitted under the HAF program.
- Implementation of provincial housing legislation: In June 2024, Council adopted Zoning Bylaw amendments to implement SSMUH and Transit-Oriented Areas legislation. Staff further refined the SSMUH implementation through the OCP update process.
- Secondary Suite Incentive Program: Adopted by Council in July 2024, this program provided financial and regulatory incentives for the addition of up to 150 new secondary suites to existing homes and the registration of existing suites. To date, 105 property owners have successfully completed their suites and an additional 45 are pending.
- Development application process review: The short-term priorities of this review, presented to Council in June 2025 and now underway, include digitizing and modernizing development applications, alternative public notification, delegating minor variances, replacing development agreements with servicing agreements, and reviewing the roles of the Development Application Review Team.
- Building permit process review and modernization strategy: The City implemented a project to provide digital tracking of building permits, standardize the internal referral process, create building permit application guides, and simplify the application form and checklists. Since then, median wait times have been steadily decreasing.
- Reaching Home program: The City worked with Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada to increase the amount received from the federal Reaching Home program from approximately $700,000 to $1.85 million. The grant supports efforts to prevent and reduce homelessness.
- HEART and HEARTH programs: In 2024, the City signed a memorandum of understanding with BC Housing to advance its HEART (Homeless Encampment Action Response Team) and HEARTH (Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing) programs. This included adding approximately 220 new temporary shelter and supported housing spaces in our community between late 2024 and the end of 2025.
- Supportive housing developments: The City established lease agreements with BC Housing for two new supportive housing developments. Sixty-one units on Riverside Road are currently under construction, while another 48 units on Gladys Avenue are advancing through the approval process.
We are grateful for staff’s dedication and hard work during our 2022-2026 term responding to the Province’s demanding housing targets and OCP legislation, as well as work done to address the complex challenges facing those experiencing homelessness. Attending to these needs, while working in partnership with BC Housing and Province of BC, is some of the most intricate and demanding work our City undertakes. It requires coordination across multiple departments, thoughtful problem-solving and a deep commitment to community well-being.
While there is still more to be done, the advancements made over the past four years provide a strong foundation for our community to build upon in the years to come.
Abbotsford City Council