Consensus for the Future: AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR SALT SPRING

WE NEED YOUR VOICE!

The Islands Trust is asking for the first phase of community input on Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan (OCP) and Land Use Bylaws (LUBs) until October 24, 2025. Your voice will shape the future of housing and affordability on Salt Spring Island. Read below for the Consensus for the Future recommendations on how to integrate the community’s needs for affordable housing with environmental protection, and tell the Islands Trust to use the Consensus as the basis for their rewrite!
The Consensus for the Future is the culmination of 10 months of work, hundreds of hours of one-to-one and group conversations with over 100 community representatives, and a lot of feedback.

We need your voice! Here’s how you can help:
  1. Send Islands Trust a letter
  2. Fill out the LTC Community Survey
  3. Attend an In-Person Event (to be announced)
  4. Share this page with your friends and family:
Kajin Goh (Chuan Society) at Common Ground Summit

THE Consensus for the Future:

This holistic package of proposals based on community feedback reflects shared input of 100+ community representatives. Based on these priorities, Transition Salt Spring is asking Salt Springers to make their voices heard about Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan (OCP). This is one of our few chances to make meaningful change to local housing solutions.

READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSALS

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CONSENSUS:

SUPPORT WORKFORCE HOUSING

Prioritize affordable housing for local workers, farmworkers, low-income, and young residents to keep our community thriving.

PLAN FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Change patterns of community so that current and future affordable housing development is protected from, and does not worsen, climate impacts like floods, wildfires, and extreme weather by planning with science and future risks in mind.

DIVERSE CLUSTERED HOUSING

Support co-housing, eco-villages, tiny homes, and multi-unit developments that are affordable, environmentally friendly, and surrounded by protected ecosystems.

WALKABLE, CONNECTED NEIGHBOURHOODS

Design our communities with homes, workspaces, shops, and services that are close together, affordable, and serve the needs of all Salt Springers, including seniors, families and the disabled and marginalized.

RESPECT INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP

Work with local First Nations and Tribes in all planning, especially in sensitive cultural and ecological areas.

STRENGTHEN LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Ensure new development supports farmland protection and strengthens access to local food.

Too often, it feels like we have to choose between housing or the environment, growth or farmland, affordability or climate action. Common Ground Consensus for the Future proposes that we don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. We can address many issues at once with an integrated set of solutions. It’s possible for us to build communities that are affordable, climate-ready, respectful of Indigenous leadership, and supportive of local food and workers. The Common Ground Consensus for the Future package offers practical solutions that allow for all of these priorities.
Jess Harkema (Windsor Plywood) speaking at Common Ground Summit

Salt Spring’s housing crisis

 

Salt Spring’s housing crisis isn’t new - but it continues to get worse. The impact is felt everywhere:

  • Workers and young families forced off the island.
  • Businesses closing for lack of staff.
  • Seniors without options to downsize or find care
  • The cost of building affordable housing has skyrocketed
  • Challenges with new projects moving forward
  • Farms struggling to keep up production (worsening our food insecurity)
  • Indigenous, disabled, and marginalized people left out of housing solutions
As many as 1,000 workers on Salt Spring are underhoused. Our community cannot thrive without secure, affordable places to live.

Community CONSENSUS

In April 2025, Transition Salt Spring hosted 70+ community representatives for the Common Ground Summit, including:
  • Leaders of most of our major non-profits (IWAV, SSI Agricultural Alliance, Lady Minto Hospital Foundation, Community Services, Housing Now, SSI Farmland Trust and TSS)
  • Long-time housing advocates, farmers, business owners
  • Elected officials from the relevant local agencies (Islands Trust, CRD/LCC, NSSWD)
  • Members of Positively Forward and Keep Salt Spring Sustainable
  • Younger and elderly community members
  • Environmental advocates, philanthropic organizations, tradespeople
  • Representatives of marginalized, underhoused and disabled people

Together, they discovered something surprising: There is far more consensus than disagreement about how to move forward.
The Summit resulted in The Consensus for the Future, the top-voted Summit proposals weighted for the LTC’s priorities and reviewed by a planner, as an official submission for the OCP/LUB review process.
Ron Wright (Keep Salt Spring Sustainable) at Common Ground Summit
Gary Holman and others at Common Ground Summit

HOW CAN I HELP?

If you want to support the Common Ground Consensus for the Future, there are 4 ways you can take action NOW to get the affordable housing we need while protecting the natural environment we all love:
E-MAIL THE LTC WITH YOUR SUPPORT
TAKE THE LTC SURVEY (with suggested responses)

ATTEND AN LTC IN-PERSON EVENT (to be announced).

SPREAD THE WORD TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY:

Survey and feedback open now until October 24. Every response strengthens the call for policies that meet housing needs while protecting what makes Salt Spring special.

Talk to your friends and family about why this matters. Every voice can make a difference.

taking action with the future in mind. it takes all of us.

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