The city has unveiled a to build 65,000 rental homes in 海角社区官网over the next seven years, a target that would require a massive unconfirmed investment from the federal and provincial governments.
A staff report, which will be discussed at next week鈥檚 executive committee meeting, comes in response to Mayor Olivia Chow and city council鈥檚 request earlier this fall for details on how to add 25,000 rental units to the city鈥檚 previous targets.
鈥淲e are reversing the destructive thinking over the past two decades 鈥 that only the private sector can build housing,鈥 Chow said. 鈥淭he path in front of us is ambitious. It is urgently needed.鈥
But the plan is contingent on significant financial investment from the provincial and federal governments: $500 million to $800 million in grants per year from each over seven years, in addition to billions in low-cost loans.
The city claims this would allow between 17,000 and 18,000 homes to be built within three to four years. Chow hopes it will be 21,000 within three years, including co-operatives and land trust acquisitions.
She is optimistic the response from the higher levels of government will be positive 鈥 housing is all they talk about and this is an opportunity to step up to the plate, she said, noting she has met with both housing ministers and these requests will not come as a surprise.
鈥淭he report is a call to partner with us,鈥 said Abi Bond, executive director of the city鈥檚 housing secretariat. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to have a housing plan that isn鈥檛 accurately focused on what it would take to deliver, even if that number is a big one.鈥
Bond noted construction costs have gone up significantly due to labour and materials, and those increases have been factored into the plan.
The plan includes five sites where the city will act as a public builder 鈥 Housing Now locations at and ., as well as 1113-1117 Dundas St. W., 11 Brock Ave. and 25 Bellevue Ave.
The vision for these sites will not change, Bond said, but the city will be looking for non-profit and co-operative partners as soon as possible. The idea is to see if the city can push the projects to completion faster when they are leading the process and to expand the public-led model to other sites.
Jag Sharma, deputy city manager for development and growth services, said 海角社区官网has already made internal changes to cut red tape and streamline development approvals, and is suggesting changes the province can make to speed up appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal. The city is also exploring a 海角社区官网Housing Affordability Fund that would be used for non-profit and public-led developments.
When asked whether the targets are achievable given the challenges the city has faced in getting affordable housing approved and built in the past, Sharma pointed to all the costs of the housing crisis and said, 鈥淐an we afford not to?鈥
The city鈥檚 housing chair, Coun. Gord Perks, said he is 鈥渆xtremely confident鈥 the plan will be supported by the provincial and federal governments.
鈥淚t would be great if all three levels of government could concentrate on building housing instead of flipping land,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e told the other governments we are ready to go.鈥
In the report, city staff also recommend making several requests to the federal and provincial government for legislative changes aimed at preventing house-flipping and renovictions, and for incentivizing private developers to include more affordable rental units.
The city is still waiting for a response to its federal Housing Accelerator Fund application that was personally overseen by Chow.
The HousingTO plan target is 65,000 rent-controlled homes 鈥 6,500 rent-geared-to-income, 41,000 affordable rental and 17,500 rent-controlled market units 鈥 to be approved, but ideally built, by 2030. Funding has been secured for 4,455 homes already, according to the city.
The Star requested comment from both the federal and provincial governments. There was no response by deadline.
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