Federal government announces $471 million in new housing cash for Toronto
Toronto is "a great city, and if we want to keep it great, we have to make homes more affordable," Trudeau says of the deal, which follows agreements inked with Hamilton, Brampton and Mississauga.
Thestar.com
Dec. 22, 2023
Victoria Gibson, Ben Spurr
Toronto will receive nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding to boost its efforts to tackle the housing crisis -- with $471 million earmarked for building denser housing citywide, protecting existing affordable rentals, speeding up development approvals and revitalizing public housing communities.
The money -- announced Thursday in front of a construction site in Greenwood-Coxwell, where a public housing property is being redeveloped -- comes out of Ottawa’s new $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, a program designed to encourage local governments and Indigenous communities to make progress on increasing housing supply and density. The deal increases the pressure on city hall to make provable changes over the coming years that make housing more affordable, available and easier to construct citywide.
Toronto will get an initial payout of $117.75 million, with further instalments from the federal government paid annually based on the city’s progress toward mutually agreed-upon goals. If significant change can't be shown on an annual basis, the federal government could cut the city off from the remainder of the funds.
“Toronto is our biggest city. It's a world class city,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Thursday, standing alongside Mayor Olivia Chow. "If we want to keep it great, we have to make homes more affordable.”
Chow, meanwhile, stressed the severity of the issues facing Toronto today -- as around 10,000 people are battling homelessness, a wait-list for subsidized housing has more than 85,000 households in the queue, and "too many young people are giving up the hope of having an affordable home."
"As part of the housing accelerator funding deal, we are reaffirming our commitment to match the urgency of our housing crisis and the speed of our actions," Chow said, promising to create both below-market and market-priced homes.
Toronto has been vying for a cut of this funding since June, pointing to strides made in recent years on boosting housing options -- from the widespread legalization of multiplexes and rooming houses in Toronto, to the introduction of new housing options such as garden suites and laneway homes.
Many of these efforts are meant to bolster rental supply, at a time when low vacancy has gone hand-in-hand with prohibitively high prices. As of November, Rentals.ca data shows the average two-bedroom listing in Toronto costs $3,469, only affordable to a household earning at least $139,000 a year.
Legalizing multiplexes citywide is the kind of move federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has pushed other cities to pursue to secure funding. When Mississauga council elected not to approve widespread fourplex legalization in October, instead directing staff to further study, Fraser issued a rebuke -- saying in the absence of a “definitive path forward on ending exclusionary zoning,” its application to access the accelerator fund would not be approved.
The warning prompted then-mayor Bonnie Crombie to exercise new “strong-mayor” powers and push ahead with legalization. Mississauga’s accelerator deal, for $112.9 million, was announced Monday -- among 16 municipalities across Canada with deals in place, including Hamilton, Vaughan and Brampton.
In Windsor, citywide fourplex legalization remains a sticking point. Mayor Drew Dilkens, in a Facebook post, recently accused Ottawa of trying to force the move as a “minimum ticket” to accessing the funds. “We have offered a fair, reasonable and sensible solution to allow more housing to be built but we won’t be bullied into a solution that alters the quality of life of residents who have worked hard to buy a home in a great neighbourhood,” he wrote.
But for Toronto, where multiplex legalization was approved by city council in May, Fraser says they wanted to move the dial further. Where the city initially filed an application in June, a revised pitch was submitted after Chow's election as mayor, and the feds have since pushed the city to make specific changes.
“There’s a number of cities across Canada who’ve argued that they have made changes previously and should be awarded for those good decisions they’ve taken," Fraser said in an interview Thursday. "But we took a policy decision … we weren’t going to cut cheques to say thank you. We were, instead, going to put an incentive on the table to invite cities to do more.”
In a November letter addressed to Chow, Fraser acknowledged the city’s progress on density, but made a number of asks, including “significantly” increasing the land where buildings could have four storeys without special permission, and allowing more rooming houses without parking minimums or a unit cap within walking distance of post-secondary institutions.
Last week, Toronto council approved a number of responses to Fraser, with many stressing work underway, such as studies on expanding home options on major streets within neighbourhoods. The city's response drew some criticism, as local housing advocacy group More Neighbours labelled it "unambitious."
Fraser told the Star Thursday the aggressiveness of Toronto's approach has ripples beyond its boundaries, as its housing crisis puts pressure on other cities. "People will be familiar with the 'drive-until-you-qualify' phenomenon that has people hopping on the 401 and going as far as their wallet demands."
The city will need to show progress on agreed-upon goals to keep the money flowing -- for 2024, one marker will be the delivery of a post-secondary housing strategy, and for the final payment, the city will need to meet a target of 11,780 new homes with building permits in-hand.
However, some details are still murky. While the city has vowed to use some funding to expand a program that buys and preserves existing low-cost rentals, Fraser said they haven’t agreed to allocate a certain dollar figure or protect a specific number of units.
The idea, he explained, was to allow a “great deal of flexibility” in terms of how cities hand out the money while agreeing on general terms. Next year, for example, he said the city committed to considering expanding building permissions for housing development from four to six units on one property.
Another area Fraser will be watching closely is progress on areas designated for growth within walking distance of major transit stations. But he acknowledged that progress also depends on provincial decisions. Whether Toronto’s progress is satisfactory to unlock the next bit of funding, he said, will depend on “the exact facts that are apparent at the time.”
As Toronto faces a major budget crisis, the city has appealed for billions of dollars in additional federal commitments to shore up its battered finances -- including more than $2.7 billion required to unlock provincial funding pledges under the new deal Chow struck with Premier Doug Ford in November. That funding would help pay for shelters, refugee support and 55 new subway trains to replace the Line 2 fleet, among other local costs.
If additional funding from Ottawa does not materialize before council is set to vote on the 2024 budget, on Feb. 14, the city has few options outside of significant property tax increases to make up any shortfalls.
At a press conference one day before the housing accelerator announcement, local officials highlighted the funding gap left within its shelter system, which is currently battling an acute capacity squeeze. Gord Tanner, the head of the city’s shelter department, and Coun. Alejandra Bravo (Ward 9--Davenport) highlighted a provincial vow of $600 million if the federal government also provided more aid. They called on the federal government to backstop $200 million for 2023, which they said was spent on sheltering refugee claimants.
Fraser, asked about the city's appeal for refugee shelter funding, said he suspected the city was “quite happy” with the cash it was receiving Thursday under the accelerator fund, while stressing it was not for shelters.
“These are conversations that we’re going to continue to have, to work toward supporting the most vulnerable in our communities, but this announcement today is for a different set of reforms,” he replied.
As other cities in the GTA await answers on their own accelerator applications, with open files in Milton, Burlington, Oakville and Markham, among others, Fraser acknowledged the speed at which local officials had signed on to substantially overhaul their city planning and housing systems.
“This is too big an opportunity to waste,” he said.
- © 2019 City of Vaughan. All Rights Reserved.