Generational Transformation of Toronto’s Housing System to Urgently Build More Affordable Homes
This week, Toronto City Council approved recommendations in the staff report “Generational Transformation of Toronto’s Housing System to Urgently Build More Affordable Homes.”
This plan focuses on:
dedicating more City-owned land for affordable rental housing
accelerating housing-ready projects on City-owned and non-profit-owned land
streamlining processes to expedite approvals and housing delivery
establishing new and sustainable funding models
supporting an increased role for Indigenous, non-profit and cooperative housing providers.
This plan is an important direction for our city – we are long overdue for a generational transformation of affordable housing. Research has been done on the “Tale of Three Cities” in Toronto, and we have continued to see this inequality grow.
I’m proud to be part of a Council, working with Mayor Chow and City staff, to champion this important shift to centring the needs of those most marginalized, and really being proactive and thoughtful as it relates to our investments.
The question has been raised – “Does this make financial sense? Do we have the dollars?” Now is the time to secure a new deal for the city, to ensure that we do have the financial investment to bring this desperately needed housing online. We are paying for it many times over in other areas. If we don't urgently move forward in this direction, we will continue to dig ourselves into a deeper hole at the cost of suffering for individuals who deserve much more than what they have access to now.
Today’s decision also advances a plan to introduce a City-led development model at five housing-ready sites under a public builder model where the City leads all aspects of the delivery of these sites. This includes staff taking steps to identify and compare various housing delivery options to achieve the ultimate objective of increasing public and non-profit ownership of homes.
This work will support achieving provincial and federal housing targets while expediting the delivery of housing commitments in the City’s HousingTO 2020-2030 and Housing 2022-2026 Action Plans.
City Council recently amended the HousingTO Plan and increased its 40,000 affordable rental homes approval target. The new target is now 65,000 rent-controlled homes comprising 6,500 rent-geared-to income, 41,000 affordable rental and 17,500 rent-controlled market homes.
Increasing and accelerating the housing supply
The report lists 51 City-owned housing sites that will deliver between 16,000 to 17,500 new rent-controlled homes – including affordable, rent-geared-to-income and market rental homes – once constructed.
Council also directed City staff to explore another 40 sites that could be added to this pipeline. In addition, 31 City-supported not-for-profit-owned sites can deliver almost 2,000 affordable rental homes with the support of all orders of government.
The report stresses that immediate access to federal and provincial land, low-cost financing and funding is necessary to support the City’s efforts.
City as a public builder
Noting that addressing Toronto’s housing crisis requires greater involvement from the government, Council has directed staff to explore and pilot models of City-led development, which would result in increasing public and non-profit ownership of housing.
Accelerating approval and delivery of housing
With the recently established Development & Growth Services area, the report outlines improvements in processes and coordination that will expedite approvals and improve the City’s ability to resolve issues that cause projects to be delayed.
Supporting Indigenous, non-profit and cooperative housing sectors
To increase affordability, both in the short-term and long-term, and to support the City’s commitment to reconciliation, Council has directed staff to develop a strategy to increase the role of the Indigenous, non-profit and cooperative housing sectors in a transformed housing system characterized by increased non-market housing.
Investments needed by all orders of government
Significant investments and commitments are needed by all orders of government to build more affordable housing and restore affordability in Toronto over the coming years.
Of the 65,000 new rent-controlled homes target, funding has already been secured to deliver 4,455 homes. The estimated cost to deliver the remaining 60,545 homes is between $28.6 billion and $31.5 billion over the next seven years and requires contributions from all orders of government. Currently, the estimated amount of funding needed from each order of government is between $500 million and $800 million per year, in addition to repayable financing. These investments can be made through a combination of grants, financing and repayable loans.
In addition to federal and provincial support to deliver the HousingTO Plan, a new fiscal deal is required to support the structural changes that will put Toronto on a path to long-term financial sustainability. Increased labour market capacity in the skilled trades and access to construction materials are also needed to scale up the production of new homes significantly.
Toronto’s ongoing response to the national housing crisis
The City continues to take a strong leadership role in housing. Since the launch of the HousingTO Plan, the City has committed approximately $8 billion in land, capital and operating funding and waived fees and charges. However, the worsening housing and homelessness crises require an even more robust range of actions across the housing continuum to address the needs of current and future residents adequately.
While the City is committed to taking every possible action within its jurisdictional and financial capacity to address the housing crisis, the federal and provincial governments must support these efforts.
As all orders of government focus on building new affordable homes, efforts must equally concentrate on protecting the existing supply of homes to ensure net growth of the affordable housing stock.
