Aug 17, 2020

Housing Needs Assessment to help plan now for Ladysmith's future

The Town of Ladysmith, together with the Cowichan Valley Regional District and its member municipalities, is completing a Housing Needs Assessment that will help determine the projected housing needs of our community.

We want to know what kinds of housing our community members need now and in the future, to plan for housing in our area.

What is a Housing Needs Assessment

Introduced as a provincial legislative requirement in 2019, the housing assessment, or report, must be completed by April 2022, and again every five years.

The Housing Needs Report Program, administered by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), supports local governments in undertaking housing needs reports in order to meet the provincial requirements.

The Town must consider the findings from the completed housing report in future decisions involving the Official Community Plan (OCP), including an OCP review identified as key strategic priority over the next two and a half years.

Local governments are required to collect approximately 50 distinct types of data to include in the final report.  Much of this information is already publicly available through BC Assessment, BC Stats and contained within the Statistics Canada Census.

The housing assessment will contain information specific to the Town of Ladysmith such as our projected population, household income, significant economic sectors and any currently available and anticipated housing units.

Public Engagement

We want to hear from you, the residents of Ladysmith, in order to identify any gaps in the data.  Public engagement extends beyond the legislative requirements for completing the needs report but is an important part of the process.

In September, we will be launching a public consultation and survey on PlaceSpeak. Your participation in this engagement process helps to ensure we have an accurate snapshot of the Ladysmith community and its housing requirements now, and in the future.  

The survey will be open from September 1-30th through our website. The Town will also have hard copies of the survey available to the public at City Hall.

Once complete, the Housing Needs Assessment will be presented to Ladysmith Council and available on the Town's website.

The path to housing tomorrow starts with your input today.

Housing Needs Assessment Timeline

The process for completing the Housing Needs Assessment includes the following steps:

  • Getting Ready - Developing our communications and engagement strategy and undertaking background research - May-July, 2020
  • Information Gathering - Data analysis and projections - July-September, 2020
  • Community Engagement - Online questionnaire, targeted interviews and focus groups - August-September, 2020
  • Compiling Findings - Submitting draft report - November, 2020
  • Presenting Findings - Finalize and present Housing Needs Assessment - November 2020 - January, 2021
  • Submitting and Posting Final Report - January 2021