Can cities plan transit, housing policy together? Report urges integration

Globalnews.ca
Oct. 24, 2023
Uday Rana

For decades, housing policy and transportation policy in Canada have been planned separately -- a factor leading to a housing crisis and declining transit ridership, a new report suggests.

On Monday, the Canadian Urban Transit Association released a study on how Canada can best integrate these two policy areas. Housing and transportation, the report said, are the two biggest expenditures for Canadians. While the housing crisis affects everyone, it particularly deals a blow to low-income families who rely on public transportation to make their long commutes.

“Housing and transit are often planned separately, resulting in new housing developments with little to no transit services or new transit projects without the residential density to increase ridership,” said CUTA President Marco D’Angelo.

“This disjointed approach leads to longer commutes, increased transit operating costs, and reduced progress on other policy goals. Housing and transportation are intertwined, and their solutions must be intertwined as well.”

Their report makes five major recommendations to all three levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal. The first is “activating land for transit-oriented development” (TOD).

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, D’Angelo said, “By unlocking the potential for this land, we can provide affordable housing options while maximizing our existing transit infrastructure and grow ridership. So this includes making it easier for municipalities to acquire land around transit stations. Addressing speculation near transit stations and prioritizing intensification in existing transit accessible areas.”

The report also encourages building housing on and around transit stations and properties. D’Angelo said this could be done by expanding the mandate of transit authorities. The report also called for inclusivity and proposed the incentivization of rental and affordable housing units.
CUTA also called for streamlining approval processes and cutting red tape.

“Time is of the essence,” said D’Angelo.

“It takes far to long for new housing and new transit to get built. Delays are costly and constrain economic and social progress.”

While the last few months have seen municipalities across Canada enact zoning changes, the CUTA report called for coordinated re-zoning. This would include accelerating the timelines for housing development in transit-oriented areas.

The last recommendation was prioritizing transit projects that pair transit and housing.

“Our report is not just a checklist, it’s a call to action,” said D’Angelo, “With a rising population, and ongoing housing supply and affordability issues, inaction is not an option.”

CUTA said the recommendations would not only help ease the housing crisis, but also increase transit ridership and aid in the fight against climate change.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser on Monday said Canadians can expect some more housing announcements in the fall budget. He outlined some of the measures that are expected, including tying federal infrastructure spending to housing outcomes in local communities.

He also says there will be more policies geared toward increasing the stock of social housing, and increasing workers’ skills and innovation in the construction industry.

The federal government, through its $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, is urging municipalities to make zoning changes. Many of the incentives of the fund are tied to municipalities making zoning changes.

On Friday, Fraser said several cities across the country, such as London, Vaughan and Hamilton in Ontario, as well as Halifax, have already made agreements with the federal governments on housing.

He said others, like Kitchener and Burlington, Ont., and Calgary were making significant gains in zoning changes.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie on Friday used her strong-mayor powers to approve the building of more fourplex housing near transit stops. This proposal was previously shot down by city council. Some experts believe pairing housing and transit will kill two birds with one stone.

Carolyn Whitzman, a housing policy expert and expert adviser to the Housing Assessment Resource Tools Project, said while transit and housing as issues are linked to each other, Canada has been slow to recognize that.

“One of the absurdities is that we’ve been talking about transit-oriented development since the 1990s. That’s 30 years ago now. But we haven’t been doing it,” she told Global News.

“We’ve been building train lines, but not using that infrastructure efficiently because there isn’t housing next to train stations.”