Searching for Solutions
As the former mayor of a mid-size Canadian city, I witnessed firsthand the growing social challenges facing communities across North America. Searching for Solutions explores urgent issues like the housing crisis, homelessness, mental health, addiction, and food insecurity and, more importantly, the disruptive ideas that are making a real difference.
Each episode features a guest who helps unpack a problem and points toward practical, proven solutions.
This podcast is for anyone who cares about their community and wants to move from frustration to action at a time when too many people feel powerless to create change.
Searching for Solutions
Can municipal housing targets be a tool to get more homes built?
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St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe was one of the first municipalities in Ontario to set an ambitious target to build 11,000 homes over the next decade. Understanding that houses are not built by municipalities, what is the reason for setting housing targets?
On this episode of Searching for Solutions, Mayor Siscoe explains how housing targets by municipalities can be used as a tool to accelerate the number of new homes being built in a community and how it can be a tool to encourage Council and staff to make key decisions to remove obstacles and create incentives to achieve ambitious housing targets.