Tackling Toronto’s housing affordability crisis is a key priority. There are new affordable housing projects in the works in Toronto-Danforth at the Riverdale Co-op, Danforth Church at Bowden Street and Don Summerville Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) site. The latter is part of an initiative to make sure TCHC revitalization projects not only replace the existing homes, but also build new affordable housing. You can read the latest report on the Don Summerville revitalization project online here.
The City’s Housing Now initiative is a plan to build 7,400 purpose built rental units in Phase 1, half of which are to be rented at below market rates. These will be part of mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented neighbourhoods on 11 City-owned properties. We’re also developing a tool called Inclusionary Zoning that requires developers to build affordable housing units as part of development projects. These are key components of the City’s overall Housing 2020-2030 Action Plan.
The Planning and Housing Committee also created a new Subcommittee on the Protection of Affordable Rental Housing in 2019, chaired by Councillor Fletcher, with a mandate to protect the affordable units we already have and fight illegitimate evictions. Public deputations to the Committee in November articulated the width and depth of the problem.
