Owen Sound, a picturesque city nestled on the southern shores of Georgian Bay, faces a housing crisis that threatens the wellbeing of its residents and the sustainability of its community. While the city celebrates unprecedented construction growth and development, the stark reality remains that affordable, safe housing is increasingly out of reach for many residents. This crisis reflects a broader provincial challenge, but its local manifestations demand urgent attention and coordinated action from municipal leaders, provincial partners, and community stakeholders.

The Facts
The scope of the housing crisis in Owen Sound is staggering. Grey County’s subsidized housing waitlist has exploded from 1,517 applicants in 2022 to 2,230 in 2024, representing a nearly 50% increase in just two years. Perhaps even more alarming, a 2024 point-in-time count revealed that 375 individuals are experiencing homelessness in the region, with 253 classified as chronically homeless. These figures represent real people - families, seniors, workers, and vulnerable individuals - who lack stable housing in a city that bills itself as a thriving community. The rental vacancy rate in Owen Sound hovers around a critically low 1.8%, creating fierce competition for limited units and driving rents to levels that many residents simply cannot afford.

The city’s existing rental housing stock presents additional challenges beyond simple availability. A survey by the RentSafe Owen Sound Collaborative presented to City Council in November 2024 painted a troubling picture of rental conditions. Seventy-four percent of rental buildings in Owen Sound are more than 40 years old, and the survey found that 87% of tenants reported wanting to leave their rental due to poor conditions but being unable to do so. Even more concerning, while 77% of tenants requested maintenance in the past year, only 35% saw their issues resolved. One landlord participating in the survey stated bluntly that “the reason substandard housing exists in Owen Sound is simply the fact the City allows it.” This highlights not just a shortage of housing, but a quality crisis that leaves vulnerable renters trapped in deteriorating conditions with few alternatives.

Housing for Some but Not for All
The irony of Owen Sound’s housing crisis is that it unfolds against a backdrop of record-setting construction and development. The city celebrated $214.5 million in construction value in 2024, with Mayor Ian Boddy calling it “a powerful sign of confidence in our city.” However, this development boom has not translated into affordable housing options for residents in need. Critics argue that the city’s approach prioritizes development for development’s sake - measured in permit values and construction dollars - rather than ensuring that growth delivers housing that residents can actually afford. The disconnect between construction activity and affordability reflects a fundamental market failure: developers build what generates profit, not necessarily what communities need.

This “affordability gap”, as it has been termed locally, exists between what developers can profitably build given current construction costs, labor shortages, and supply chain challenges, and what individuals and families can afford to pay. Research from the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay has identified this gap as a critical barrier to addressing the housing crisis. Without municipal intervention - through inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, fee reductions for affordable units, or direct investment - market forces alone will not produce housing accessible to low and moderate-income households. Meanwhile, speculative investment and the influx of buyers from higher-priced markets like Toronto continue to drive up both home prices and rents, pricing out local workers and long-time residents.

Some Hope
To their credit, government partners have begun taking concrete steps to address the crisis. In July 2025, Owen Sound City Council approved the transfer of lands adjacent to Bayfield Landing to the Owen Sound Housing Company Limited to develop affordable housing, responding directly to the most in-demand housing type on the county’s waitlist. Grey County has contributed funding from its Affordable Housing Reserve Fund, including a $45,000 contribution in April 2025 to help purchase land on 8th Avenue East for 10-12 one-bedroom affordable units. The federal and provincial governments have also invested, including over $9.6 million to create 71 affordable housing units at Odawa Heights, with residents moving into early phases starting in 2018 and 2019.

These initiatives, while commendable, represent incremental progress against a rapidly worsening crisis. Grey County’s Housing Action Plan aims to create deeply affordable housing for low to moderate-income households while also providing “missing middle” housing for those with moderate to average incomes. Programs like Ontario Renovates, the Homeownership Program, and rent supplements offer important supports, but they operate at a scale insufficient to meet current demand. The county oversees more than 450 non-profit housing units, but the 2,230-person waitlist demonstrates that supply falls drastically short of need.

Community advocates have called for more comprehensive and systemic approaches. The “Five Ways Home” framework, endorsed by housing and planning experts across Ontario, provides a roadmap that includes focused municipal knowledge and development practice, increased access to capital for affordable acquisition and development, and intentional policies that prioritize affordability. Some have urged Owen Sound to implement inclusionary zoning requirements that mandate affordable units in new developments, expedite approvals for affordable housing projects, donate or sell municipal land below market value for affordable housing, reduce development charges for affordable units, and actively support non-profit housing providers.

The Source
The housing crisis in Owen Sound also reflects larger economic and social transformations affecting many Ontario communities. As nearby tourist destinations like Sauble Beach and Tobermory reach capacity and prices in the Greater Toronto Area remain prohibitively high, secondary markets like Owen Sound have become targets for investment and relocation. While this brings economic activity, it also introduces inflationary pressures that outpace local wage growth. Healthcare workers, service industry employees, retail staff, and other essential workers increasingly find themselves unable to afford housing in the communities they serve, threatening the city’s economic sustainability and social fabric.

The Path Forward
The path forward requires recognizing that housing is not simply a commodity to be left to market forces, but a fundamental human need and right that supports individual dignity and community wellbeing. It demands that Owen Sound’s leadership match its enthusiasm for development with equal commitment to affordability, that growth be measured not just in construction dollars but in housing outcomes for residents at all income levels. It requires sustained investment from all levels of government, innovative partnerships between public, private, and non-profit sectors, and policies that prioritize people over profit margins.

Owen Sound stands at a crossroads. The city can continue celebrating development while residents struggle to find safe, affordable homes, or it can harness this moment of growth to build a more inclusive and sustainable community. The data is clear, the need is urgent, and the tools are available. What remains to be seen is whether there exists the political will and community commitment to ensure that all residents of Owen Sound have a place to call home.