Chris Warrilow had what most Torontonians can only dream of: a two-bedroom apartment in a walkable neighbourhood with easy transit access and friendly neighbours — all for only $1,400 a month.
He’d lived there for 12 years — until June of last year, when the building at Pape and Cosburn was torn down to make way for a new station on the Ontario Line.
Now the 60-year-old prop master for TV shows and movies says his rent is a lot more for a lot less — and doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to afford to live in his old neighbourhood.
“I literally doubled my rental costs for a smaller place in a less desirable location, and I am not happy with where I am,” Warrilow said.
Warrilow was moved to make way for the new “transit-oriented community” (TOC) planned for Cosburn station, as part of the nearly $19-billion Ontario Line project.
Such communities are meant to bolster density in the areas surrounding new stations along the 16-kilometre line, but a staff report at city council this week warned that the province is not abiding by the city’s policy requiring 20 per cent of the units in new developments be affordable.
As a consequence, there are no plans to replace any of the affordable rentals like Warrilow’s demolished by transit construction in the midst of a housing crisis.
The Cosburn development is expected to contain 620 units, but the province has yet to say how many of those units — if any — will be affordable.
Warrilow received enough money to pay for the difference in rent between his old apartment and his new one near Danforth and Main for three years, as well as an extra $6,000 for the move and his troubles — $52,000 in all as a lump sum.
As he shared his plight with friends, Warrilow was asked, “Oh, will they let you move in later?”
“I don’t know that there’s going to be a building there to move into,” he answered.
Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency overseeing Ontario Line construction, has the right to take over properties, buying them for market value from owners to make way for transit projects, compensating owners and tenants for the disruption that comes when building a massive transit project through a large city.
“We recognize that construction can be disruptive, and we always work closely with owners, tenants and businesses to minimize impacts wherever possible,” said Andrea Ernesaks, a spokesperson for Metrolinx.
“In every case, we work directly with each property owner and tenant to provide fair compensation and supports.”
Coun. Gord Perks, chair of council’s housing and planning committee, said he had hoped the province would ensure affordable housing, including units in a variety of sizes, would be part of the Ontario Line developments. That would mean renters such as Warrilow might be able to move back into the neighbourhoods that they have occupied for so long. But there’s little the city can do, as the province can override municipal housing bylaws.
Instead, the province has banked on these TOCs as a means of offsetting the costs for the construction of the Ontario Line, according to Perks. He fears the Ontario Line developments will not contain housing units people can afford to live in, but bachelor condos, which have often been treated as investment properties by speculators, and “bought and sold like frozen orange juice futures.”
The staff report on the TOCs found that reaching the city’s 20 per cent affordable housing threshold would not be feasible “without making significant changes to the development proposals, discounting of land value and/or providing additional direct funding.”
When the province announced in October 2023 that six proposed transit-oriented communities would create 5,900 new residential units, it emphasized in its press release and online that they would include some affordable units.
However, when asked this week how it was working with the city to provide affordable housing units in its Ontario Line TOCs, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure said in a statement that the province: “acknowledges the current housing crisis across the country, including Ontario, and is working with local municipalities on a site-by-site basis to identify if and how affordable housing can be delivered.”
There isn’t much the city can do, according to legal experts, with the province’s minister of housing able to override city zoning laws in a variety of ways, including minister’s zoning orders.
“The city doesn’t appear to have any constitutional power to resist anything the province wants to impose,” said Benjamin Ries, executive director of South Etobicoke Community Legal Services. As an example, Ries pointed to the province passing a bill in 2023 that gave it the power to override municipal rental replacement bylaws.
Without replacements being built, the city’s overall capacity of affordable housing is diminished, added Ries, and in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøwhere average rents are $2,632, tenants cling to their rentals “like a chunk of the Titanic.”
Warrilow, who wants a place to put down roots, isn’t sure where he’ll be in three years when his rent differential runs out.
“I know a lot of friends of mine who move on an annual basis. I don’t know how they live that way,” he said. “I am not one of those people.”
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