Affordable housing unit

Social Housing or Rental Tenure (SHORT) Program

To date, the program has helped expedite the delivery of over 1,600 much-needed homes, with more than 2,700 additional units in construction as of 2024.

What's on this page

Launched as a pilot program in October 2017, SHORT aimed to deliver social housing through a dedicated team and streamlined development process. As the program developed beyond the pilot, it became the benchmark by which most major projects were measured. 

The SHORT program framework has since been applied on an interim basis to other social priority projects, including City capital projects and Nation-led projects under the UNDRIP Action Plan.

We work closely with applicants – non-profit, public, or private – to set a schedule and mutually commit to completing rezoning approvals within 35 weeks and development permits approvals within 12 to 16 weeks.

What projects qualify

The program evaluates all projects on the following criteria to determine if they qualify for this special priority process:

  • Social housing projects
  • Renewing and redeveloping existing social housing to provide more housing units

Other priority projects that are expedited by the same framework include:

  • City-led capital projects 
  • Nation-led 
  • Non-profit community amenities

Our goal is to expedite priority projects to meet the needs of the city.

What to expect

If a project qualifies, applicants will:

  • Work with our staff from the initial enquiry to the issuance of an occupancy permit
  • Be subject to compressed approvals where multiple processes can be completed and issued simultaneously

All applicants will be required to follow the same steps, review, and engagement processes as non-SHORT applicants. However, many steps will overlap resulting in faster approvals. 

Timeline from enquiry to issuance

Learn more

Helpful links