September 27, 2016
Mayor John Tory and Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18 Davenport), Council's Housing Advocate, today announced that the City of Toronto will make 640 Lansdowne Ave. available to private and non-profit developers to build affordable housing. This is part of the City’s Open Door Program, which streamlines the approval process, increases City financial incentives and releases more surplus public land for development.
Working with partners from Build Toronto, Toronto Community Housing (TCH), the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Waterfront Toronto, the City's provision of this latest location, plus 14 others already identified, represent 1,750 rental homes and 641 affordable ownership homes worth $106.3 million in land value. That is in addition to five City sites that City Council has already approved for the creation of 262 rental homes and 147 affordable ownership homes.
"We need to do everything we can to build more affordable housing in Toronto. Making City land available to private and non-profit builders will help deliver more affordable housing to people who need it," said Mayor Tory. "As a city, we are doing our part but we can no longer do it alone. We need the federal and provincial governments to take action. Without real partnerships, our cities will become more and more unaffordable, affecting people of all ages and backgrounds.”
The Open Door Program is part of the ongoing action Toronto is taking on housing:
• Over the last year and a half, Council has approved 522 units of affordable housing to be built across the city.
• As of May 2016, 550 families on the City’s affordable housing waiting list received new housing allowances so they can afford to continue to live in their homes while City of Toronto taking action to build more affordable housing maintaining their position on the waiting list.
• By the end of next year, the City will have invested more than its third of the $2.6 billion repair backlog in TCH ($919 million).
• The City has contributed about $200 million a year to TCH as an operating subsidy.
• The City has committed up to $225 million in incentives and $106.3 million in land over the next five years to stimulate affordable housing development through the Open Door Program.
"There is a real housing crisis in Toronto and across Canada," said Councillor Bailão. "This crisis can only be solved when all levels of government come together, leverage their resources, foster innovation and create a different way of doing things."
On Friday, September 30, Mayor John Tory and Councillor Bailão will host the 2016 Toronto Housing Summit: Taking Action on Housing. The goal of the summit is to urge both the federal and provincial governments to take a greater role in addressing the affordable and social housing crisis facing Canadian cities. Mayor Tory will be joined by members of Canada’s Big City Mayors’ Caucus.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contacts:
Keerthana Kamalavasan, Office of the Mayor, 647-460-7507, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Robert Cerjanec, Councillor Bailao’s Office, 416-338-5274, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sean Gadon, Affordable Housing Office, 416-338-1143, 416-569-1770 (cell), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
