Homes for Islanders: An Integrated Housing Solutions Framework for Salt Spring Island (2023)

This report from Salt Spring Solutions aims to bring together a comprehensive set of solutions to the housing crisis on Salt Spring Island.

Key insights:

Salt Spring Island’s housing challenges are currently exasperated by several factors, including sprawl, demographic changes and strained infrastructure capacity.

As this report details, Salt Spring Island looks to address these by establishing a local housing framework that advances five strategies:

• Strategy 1: Coordinated and Properly Resourced Local Approach to Housing
• Strategy 2: Effective Public Education, Engagement, and Dialogue on Housing.
• Strategy 3: Preservation of Rural Areas and Nature Space through Clustered Housing.
• Strategy 4: Readying Ganges Village for More Housing
• Strategy 5: Accessory Dwellings for Housing, in the Right Places

Amongst the key policy actions recommended include:

• creating an entity to oversee and coordinate interagency tasks,
• developing a public education and engagement policy,
• updating policy and zoning regulations to incentivize compact,
• clustered housing development,
• intensifying growth in the town centre,
• and permitting ADUs for long-term occupancy.