In Saskatoon recently, we had a few conversations about housing. Specifically, we were talking about 'affordable' housing. In one of those conversations, we had the opportunity to clarify what that meant to the person to whom we were speaking, and we realized that we were talking about two different things.
Low-cost housing is a very important consideration in city-building. And usually, what I think of when I am speaking about affordable housing, is housing for those who can't afford traditional housing. It is typically publicly funded or subsidized, created using incentives to builders or landowners.
But there's another kind of housing that is really important when building a Next City. Let's call it workforce housing. Workforce housing could be defined as housing that is affordable to those who are in the early years of their career. Young singles, or families, who are just starting out. It can be desirable rental accomodation, or it could be housing that people in this demographic can afford to purchase. But either way, it is tremendously important, and so is its location.
Young professionals very often want the option to live near the downtown core. They want to be close to where they work. Close to where they play after hours. They want the opportunity to live without a car. They want the opportunity to choose public transportation or active transportation to get where they're going. And workforce housing close to the heart of your city provides those opportunities.
If your city does a great job of providing workforce housing in the locations YPs want to live, share it with us! Where do the young professionals in your city live? Are they pushed to the outskirts? Or can they choose to live where they can hear - and BE - the heartbeat of your city?