About Cities for Everyone
Cities for Everyone is a community organization that supports more affordable housing and transportation in order to provide security, mobility and opportunity for people with all incomes and abilities.
Cities for Everyone uses education and advocacy to overcome barriers to affordable urban infill and affordable transportation options. We empower people to support affordability in their communities.
Read about some of the challenges of housing and transportation unaffordability that we face, and the solutions that we have at our disposal!
Home Sweet, Affordable Home!
Many hard-working families are stressed by economic forces that drive up living costs faster than wages. This results, in part, from public policies that favour costly housing and transportation options over more affordable alternatives. Since these are the two largest expensive in most households’ budgets, representing more than 60% of total spending by many lower-income households, such policies significantly reduce overall affordability.
For many households, the most affordable option consists of inexpensive housing, such as townhouses and apartments, located in walkable urban neighbourhoods where residents don’t need to own a car. Many cities have a shortage of such housing, forcing lower-income households to spend more on housing and transportation than they can afford. Affordable urban housing gives struggling households more economic freedom and opportunity.
Many public policies favour expensive housing and transportation over more affordable alternatives. These include zoning codes that exclude townhouses and apartments from residential neighbourhoods, minimum parking requirements which force residents to pay for costly parking spaces that they don’t need, and transport planning practices that favour automobile travel over walking, cycling and public transport. Such policies reflect the higher voting rates of older and more affluent citizens, policies that increase affordability will only be implemented if younger and lower-income citizens vote more often and advocate for change. Cities for Everyone works to educate communities about affordability issues and promote an affordability policy agenda.
Support affordability, security, freedom and opportunity!