The Regional District of East Kootenay has completed a Housing Needs Assessment to better understand housing challenges across Electoral Areas A, B, C, E, F, and G. As a result, the public engagement piece of the project has been completed and this project page has been archived.

You can view the RDEK Electoral Area Housing Needs Assessment Report here: https://www.rdek.bc.ca/departments/development_services/planning/housing_needs_assessment_report

What is a Housing Needs Assessment?

A Housing Needs Assessment is a report that describes current and anticipated housing needs in a community by collecting data, analyzing trends and speaking with community members. It is also a relatively recent requirement under the Local Government Statutes (Housing Needs Reports) Amendment Act, 2018 which requires Local Governments to develop a Housing Needs Report every five years to better inform and understand the kind of housing most needed in their communities by identifying existing and projected gaps in housing supply.

All housing needs reports are required to contain the following, based on an analysis of the information collected:

• Statements about key areas of local need, including: affordable housing, rental housing, special needs housing, seniors housing, family housing, and shelters and housing for people at risk of homelessness
• The number of housing units required to meet current and anticipated housing needs for at least the next five years, by housing type. Housing ‘type’ is defined as dwelling size (number of bedrooms)
• The number and percentage of households in core housing need and extreme core housing need

Funding support for the Housing Needs Assessment project is being provided by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).