SaskatoonSaskatoon is heading in a new direction when it comes to affordable housing. But the true test will come in budget talks at the end of November when it comes time to commit money to the new affordable housing strategy endorsed by a city council committee Wednesday.Administration recommends spending $8.6 million on strategy over 2 yearsPhil Tank · CBC News · Posted: Oct 08, 2025 6:23 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 8Saskatoon city council’s planning, development and community services committee endorsed a new affordable housing strategy at their meeting on Wednesday. (CBC)Saskatoon is heading in a new direction when it comes to affordable housing.But the true test will come in budget talks at the end of November — when it comes time to commit money to the new affordable housing strategy endorsed by a city council committee Wednesday.The ambitious plan includes 84 tasks, 52 of which have been prioritized as needed urgently to address the city’s housing crisis. But the strategy depends on more funding, according to a city report.Nine speakers endorsed the plan at Wednesday’s meeting of the planning, development and community services committee.Rachael Steinke, the CEO of the Saskatoon Community Foundation, said the housing shortage and ensuing homelessness crisis have strained services such as emergency responders and health care.“We also know that the cost of inaction in the affordable housing realm is extraordinarily high,” Steinke told the committee. “It is measured not just in dollars, but it is measured in human terms, in lives interrupted and lost, in lost opportunities and increased stress placed on us all.“Simply put, the price of doing nothing is far greater than the cost of acting boldly.”But with a preliminary property tax increase of nearly 10 per cent for next year, any increase on top of that seems certain to spark debate.City bureaucrats are recommending spending of $8.6 million on the affordable housing strategy over the next two years. That plan would require a further property tax increase of about 1.3 per cent spread over two years, the city’s chief financial officer Clae Hack told the meeting.That money would add 319 new affordable housing units over two years.’Drop in the bucket’Mathieu Gaudet, the director of housing and homelessness for Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, applauded the plan, but called the additional units a “drop in the bucket.”Gaudet pointed out that his organization has identified the need for 7,000 more affordable housing units in the next decade, just for Indigenous people. The city’s projections show a shortfall of 28,000 housing units looming, Gaudet added.Mathieu Gaudet, the director of housing and homelessness for Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, says the units planned under Saskatoon’s new housing strategy are just a ‘drop in the bucket.’ (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)“Despite all this analysis, Canada is building less affordable housing than it did in the 1970s and the city has invested less in affordable housing in the last three years than it did 20 years ago,” Gaudet said.A city report cites research from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that shows one in 10 households in Saskatoon are experiencing “core housing need.” That means those households fail to meet standards for adequacy (with no major repairs needed), affordability (spending less than 30 per cent of income on housing) or suitability (sufficient bedrooms).Nearly three-quarters of those in the core housing need category are renters and seniors, and single mothers and Indigenous people are disproportionately represented in this category.Saskatoon’s high growth rate has exacerbated the housing shortage.Since 2022, the city added 33,424 more people — roughly the population of Moose Jaw — and housing has struggled to keep up.Nearly two-thirds of Saskatoon’s 107,050 occupied homes are owned, and the rest are rented, according to the 2021 census.WATCH | Affordable housing proposal divides opinions:New affordable housing proposal divides opinions in SaskatoonA proposal for a new 25-unit complex at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Ruth Street in Saskatoon is dividing residents. Chris Guerrette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, also spoke in favour of the plan and more affordable housing.“Saskatoon needs more choice and it needs a very precise choice at the bottom of that housing continuum,” she told the meeting. “Our members see that demand for those homes every day.”The MLS benchmark price for homes in Saskatoon increased to $395,300 in December from $311,400 in 2019, a city report notes.Average monthly rent for a two-bedroom unit increased by 8.4 per cent last year to $1,482, the report adds.Angela Bishop, the director of Camponi Housing Corporation, which helps to find affordable housing for Indigenous people, told the meeting the organization has a waitlist for housing of more than 1,500 names.The committee also voted to grant tax abatements worth $1.5 million to 11 projects that are expected to add 208 new affordable housing units.ABOUT THE AUTHORPhil Tank is a journalist in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon’s new affordable housing plan advances to budget talks
