More Than 4 Walls: Age-Friendly Housing Builds Connections and Community

November 27, 2025

In the fall of 2023, the Age Friendly Housing Committee launched the Community Conversations Initiative to provide a space for older adults in Ottawa to talk about their housing needs. The initiative involved gathering of data through community conversations and a survey and encouraging people to become more engaged in advocating for their housing needs.

In total, we heard from 811 people – about 150 from the in-person community conversations (5 in English and 2 in French) and 661 who completed an online survey. The seven community conversations took place across Ottawa, reaching older adults living in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

1. Churchill Seniors Centre
2. Manotick Legion
3. Kanata Seniors Council
4. Montfort Renaissance – Centre Guigues
5. Rendez-vous des aînés Francophones (RAFO)
6. Brittany Park Condominiums
7. Orléans South-Navan, Councillor Kitts

This summary provides the highlights of what we heard and what we need to advance to ensure age-friendly housing options are affordable and accessible in Ottawa.

Recommendations

The results from the community conversations and online survey augments the policy recommendation identified by the COA in previous engagement activities during the 2022 municipal election, as well as recommendations from community partners such as the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, Ottawa Seniors Pride Network, the Social Planning Council of Ottawa, Ethno-Cultural Seniors Network, and Champlain Dementia Network.

To address the aging age-friendly housing needs of Ottawa’s older adults, the COA calls on the City of Ottawa to work with its Federal and Provincial partners to:

1. Increase the availability of affordable purpose-built age-friendly rental housing.
2. Increase the supply and availability of accessible housing for older adults.
3. Facilitate the coordination of public health and community services with health teams, community organizations, and partners to expand the range of home and community care support services to promote and protect the health and safety of older adults to age in place and communities.
4. Invest in innovative building models.
5. Engage and consult equitably with older adults, researchers, developers, and other experts and consider best practices to meet the housing needs and challenges of Ottawa’s older adults.