My Ward 14 Affordable Housing Motion Passes at City Council

During the debate at City Council this week on Mayor Chow's proposal to increase the target of affordable units in her affordable housing plan by 25,000, I moved a motion to set up a pilot project for a new way of identifying the city's affordable housing targets for developers.

The motion asks that the city set out a target for each development application in Ward 14, including the Transit Oriented Communities (TOC), for how many affordable units the city wants to see achieved.

While the inclusion of these units is ultimately up to the developer – or for the TOC's, up to the province – at every community meeting the community consistently asks about the inclusion of affordable housing.

Having the city publicly set a target should help make those requests more focused and lead to the inclusion of affordable housing in more developments.

My motion reads:

1. City Council request the Deputy City Manager, Development and Growth Services, to establish a pilot project in Ward 14-Toronto Danforth, for all active development applications, including East Harbour and Gerrard-Carlaw North Transit Oriented Communities, where the Housing Secretariat provides City Planning with a target goal for the number of affordable units to be achieved, with the minimum equal to the requirement under the city’s Inclusionary Zoning Policy, as well as any other related criteria such as Transit Oriented Communities, Major Transit Station Areas, large sites and any other criteria deemed reasonable.
2. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to ensure that the target goal for the number of affordable units and related information be presented as part of the statutory community consultation meeting.

I spoke at Council about why this is important:

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