Copious Housing
Housing Affordability
As someone with hands-on experience with building housing, I know that there's no magic wand for housing affordability. We need multiple coordinated interventions to make progress.
The price of housing is set by supply and demand. In the 1990s, Toronto’s city plan called for nodes of high-density towers surrounded by low-rise neighbourhoods. This strategy might have worked – Toronto is known as a city of towers, after all.
But as construction costs rose beyond what rents could cover, and immigration added more demand, we ended up with a perfect storm: people competing for limited housing or leaving the city altogether. This exodus impacts our economy, our social fabric, and our overall quality of life.
Some of the problems are global in scope, other are for other levels of government.
What can Toronto City Council do?
Coordinate approvals across city departments to reduce project delays. A 2018 study by the Ontario Association of Architects found that each month a unit is tied up in site plan approvals adds $2,500 to its cost. Approval times currently range from 9 months to 2 years!
Eliminate site plan approval requirements entirely for housing up to six storeys.
Designate more areas for buildings that are six stories or fewer, which are up to 25% cheaper to build than high-rise towers.
Build expertise within the city to understand development economics and make it a factor in city policy.
Change the development permit system to make requirements more flexible, ensuring we achieve the right housing mix that we need while treating all developments fairly.
Approve six-storey and lower buildings with single exit staircases to reduce land assembly costs, lower common area expenses, and improve livability.
Support smaller developments through a standard approach to servicing and template condo agreement.
There’s no one solution, but many. If we’re willing to adapt our rules and processes, we can be part of the solution. With your vote, I will work to make sure Toronto’s housing market meets the needs of everyone.
Housing for Families
Two of my employees plan to leave the city because they want to have kids! Toronto has over 5,000 fewer children than five years ago. What is going on?
The lowest price for a house anywhere in Toronto right now is about $850,000. To qualify for a mortgage that size, you would need a household income of $180,000 per year. The average household income in Toronto is $120,000 per year. This gap is driving housing costs out of reach for young families.
Kids, and their parents, are a vital part of our community and part of our extended families. If grandparents, aunts and uncles can’t drop in to visit, help, or share a meal because they live hours away, it makes all our lives poorer.
We need more large three-bedroom units!
What can the city do?
Shorten the approval processes. These can add $50,000 to the price of a unit.
Support micro-condos: three-unit homes on existing single family lots with the massing of a large house by developing condo templates.
Standardize servicing approvals so builders know what to expect.
Use the development charges to favour three-bedroom units.
Support co-housing projects to allow people to share living spaces in ways that suit their needs.
Combined, these measures could bring down prices by as much as 25% without affecting land values, and best of all, they could bring your family closer together.
Support for families means support for complete communities. My approach to housing and communities is shaped by my lived experience as an architect and my deep connection to both everyday people and thought leaders. This practical experience is what I want to bring to city hall.
Fixing Homelessness
You want parks for to be used as parks? Fix Homelessness.
I have a depth of experience solving interconnected problems in a practical way.
A sixty-something woman whom we know came to our office asking us to sign a letter of support. She was seeking a $25,000 grant from the federal government for a project to assist homeless seniors and had recently become homeless herself. She was living in a tent.
A Ward 15 voter told us he is uncomfortable walking from the subway through his local park because homeless people are in it every night.
It’s musical chairs. As we have fewer and fewer affordable apartments, those with a bit more money get a home, and some are pushed out. It’s speeding up as more people come to the city, and more small apartments are gutted for renovictions to condos or demolished for larger, more expensive buildings.
This is tied to community safety. After couch surfing options have been exhausted, people camp in the parks, sleep under bridges or live in the subways and sleep on sewer gratings. We cannot treat addiction and mental illness for people who lack secure housing.
What can we do?
Halt the demolition of any apartment building, where all existing tenants have not found new homes at reasonable prices.
Use city land to build housing, above existing facilities if necessary.
Favour non-profit rental ownership over pro-profit for new rent geared to income (RGI) housing and development charge relief.
Work with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) to streamline development financing for non-profits.
Purchase distressed condo projects, if the price is right!
We can't allow Torontonians to freeze on our streets or in our parks.
Housing for Downsizers
When creating complete communities, we also need to consider older adults. They too need housing that is appropriate for their life stage. Many of them live alone in houses that are too large for them.
When seniors want to move out of a large house and into something smaller, what is important to them? Two things: cost and tenure.
Cost, of course, because their income is fixed and you need to make it last an unknown amount of time.
And tenure, meaning you get to decide when to leave. We all hate being renovicted, but it’s particularly tough being renovicted in your nineties.
A condo apartment is relatively stable, but not much cheaper than a house, and there can be unexpected costs and levies.
If you rent, there is more money left from the sale of the house, but it may have to last 20 to 30 years at unknown rental rates!
On the other hand, staying in a house that you own if the mortgage has been paid off, even if it’s a bit lonely, is much less risky.
But the most important part is that moving any distance means that you become disconnected from family and lose your network of friends, activists and volunteer work. The things that make life worth living.
What can the city do?
Support community groups that want to create non-profit rental housing for seniors.
Provide management services for seniors who want to create a second unit in their homes.
These approaches illustrate approaches for both seniors who want to stay in their homes and seniors who want to downsize. It’s about care and respect. Vote for me if you want to see complete communities that have housing, services, and amenities for people of all ages and stages.