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<\/p>\nCBC Ottawa asked voters early in the municipal election campaign about the issues you care about. Now, with days to go before voting day, here’s what the leading mayoral candidates have promised on four of those top issues. Today: housing.<\/p>\n
Six years ago, council unanimously declared a housing and homelessness emergency in Ottawa. <\/p>\n
Since then, the waiting list for rent-geared-to-income housing has only grown, reaching above 16,000 households. Private rents have soared. Shelter demand has ballooned. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the development industry is facing serious headwinds from high interest rates and construction costs, and the city has repeatedly missed provincial targets to get more units built.<\/p>\n
And it will need to build many, many more. Going forward, the province wants the city to find space for more than 500,000 residents over the next quarter-century.<\/p>\n
Soon after the election, council will have to decide whether to cram most of them into existing neighbourhoods, or open up space for new suburbs by pushing out the urban boundary that limits sprawl.<\/p>\n
Council has already moved to pull down roadblocks to build housing, including through a new zoning bylaw that allows denser development in virtually every neighbourhood. <\/p>\n
But the leading mayoral candidates say they want to do even more. Here’s how many houses they’re promising to get built, where they want to put them and how they’re proposing to get it done. <\/p>\n
Jeff Leiper <\/p>\n
Jeff Leiper at a campaign event for his 2026 mayoral run. (Arthur White-Crummey\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Jeff Leiper is promising to get 1,500 non-profit homes built per year, or 6,000 over a four-year mandate. <\/p>\n
He said he would do it by dedicating city-owned land, fast-tracking approvals for non-profit builders and using long-term leases instead of sales to reduce costs for builders. <\/p>\n
Leiper is also pledging to launch an acquisition fund that would allow the city to buy up private market rentals that are at risk of demolition or sudden rent hikes. The city would then transfer them to non-profit operators to keep them affordable. <\/p>\n
He told CBC he would put about $5 million to $8 million into the fund, using money from the city’s vacant unit tax, though that revenue already pays for affordable housing projects. His campaign team later said the number could be higher, calling around $10 million to $20 million in capital funding a “reasonable scenario,” though the precise amount would be set at budget time.<\/p>\n
As a city councillor, he supported that idea when it came to committee in 2024<\/a>, though it failed in an eight-to-four vote. <\/p>\n Leiper said he would also better enforce housing standards to address unsafe conditions, with more proactive inspections and escalating fines for landlords who repeatedly violate bylaws.<\/p>\n On private market housing, Leiper has expressed confidence that the more permissive zoning rules he championed as planning and housing committee chair will make a difference.<\/p>\n But he said the city can only do so much to spur private market development, which is why he’s putting so much focus on not-for-profit builders.<\/p>\n While Leiper has pointed to the high costs of servicing brand new suburbs like Tewin, he isn’t committing to holding the line on the urban boundary to halt all new sprawl, saying the city will have to take a close look at the math. Even so, he said the majority of growth should happen in existing neighbourhoods. <\/p>\n Neil Saravanamuttoo Neil Saravanamuttoo says he would double the share of non-market housing in the city by building about 25,000 to 35,000 non-market units. (Francis Ferland\/CBC)<\/p>\n The centrepiece of Neil Saravanamuttoo’s housing plan is what he calls “the public option.” He would double the share of non-market housing in the city by building about 25,000 to 35,000 non-market units.<\/p>\n He said he would rely on a subsidiary of Ottawa Community Housing that focuses on affordable middle class units, rather than subsidized rent-geared-to-income housing. He said those units would still be cheaper than market rents since there’d be no need to earn a profit. <\/p>\n Saravanamuttoo said it wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything since rents would eventually pay for construction costs. But the city would have to guarantee loans to finance building upfront, and Saravanamuttoo acknowledged that would mean taking on billions of dollars in added debt.<\/p>\n He couldn’t give a specific debt number. It’s a long-term project, with Saravanamuttoo hoping to see it achieved within two decades. <\/p>\n Saravanamuttoo said the long-term solution to homelessness is subsidized social housing with wraparound supports, though he doesn’t make any specific commitments to get more built \u2014 not on a permanent basis, anyway. <\/p>\n He does have a temporary solution: He said the city can get people off the street quickly by imitating Gatineau, Que., which has a village of tiny homes built out of shipping containers. But he hasn’t provided details on the funding source or a possible location. <\/p>\n Saravanamuttoo is against expanding the urban boundary to allow more sprawl, saying Ottawa simply can’t afford the costs. <\/p>\n Alex Lawson Alex Lawson on a job site for his company Capital Framers on the day he announced his run for mayor to CBC. (Nick Persaud\/CBC)<\/p>\n Alex Lawson owns a company that frames homes, so it’s little surprise that one of his first announcements was about housing. He promised to cut fees that developers pay on every new home they build.<\/p>\n The money covers infrastructure the city needs to service those homes, but Lawson said he would draw on a federal and provincial fund to offset those losses and cut the fees in half. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792791983_491_default.jpg\")
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