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Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging
Public Land Partnerships
Sean Gadon City of Toronto, Affordable Housing Office, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3C6
Email: [email protected]
Abstract Toronto’s housing situation is a mixed blessing between a booming housing market and many residents left behind
unable to find, compete for, and maintain affordable housing. In recent years the affordable housing crisis has
grown with warning signs for the future. This paper explores public land as an important catalyst for affordable
housing and provides best practices where the City of Toronto has leveraged the use of public and surplus land to
support affordable rental housing highlighting a range of public/private/non-profit housing partnerships in the new
West Don Lands community. The paper also contains a number of suggestions for governments and housing
stakeholders to consider in building a strong and more effective public land strategy for affordable housing.
Keywords: Toronto, Affordable Housing, Public Surplus Land, Partnerships
Introduction - Toronto’s Housing Situation
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest city in North America and home to a diverse population
of about 2.9 million people. Over the past decade, Toronto has witnessed an unprecedented residential
building boom and a hot housing market for consumers. Toronto leads North American cities in
residential construction projects building on average some 16,000 new residential units annually. The
booming construction industry has produced record number of jobs and other economic benefits,
including significant revenues for all three orders of government.
Figure 1- Commercial and Residential Buildings under Construction
Source: Canadian Urban Institute and Canadian Center for Economic Analysis, May 2018
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Factors often cited as contributing to the hot housing market and rising prices in Toronto include the
City’s ongoing population growth, the rise of single households, the availability of low-interest financing,
shortage of land supply, the emergence of the condominium investor, and the presence of foreign buyers.
Overall, the result has been what some commentators have called the “commodification of housing”– a
phenomenon where housing is built for the investor rather than the consumer and where the price of
housing has become separated from the ability of local residents to afford their housing, with costs rising
faster than incomes.
What is happening in Toronto is troubling news. But it is not unique to Toronto. Globally, as the
McKinsey Global Institute reports, “If current trends in urbanization and income growth persist, the
affordable housing gap would grow from 330 million urban households to 440 million by 2025, leaving at
least 1.6 billion people living in substandard housing or financially stretched by housing costs” (Woetzel
et al. 2014). A review of how low-and-moderate-income residents are coping in Toronto’s housing market
paints a bleak picture. And the future market outlook for low-and-moderate-income residents has the
potential to be even bleaker.
In considering the full continuum of housing in the city, the facts and predictions are:
• Homeless shelters are at capacity – less than 8% of shelter users stay in shelters for very long
periods (466 days per episode and 761 days in total on average) filling 43% of shelter capacity.
The city is also coping with a strong increase in refugees – Currently about 40% of shelter users
are identified as refugee claimants and this trend is forecast to continue.
• Street homelessness persisted over the years and this trend is forecast to continue.
• Social housing waiting list and times have grown, with some 100,000 households waiting to
access some 94,000 social housing homes. This trend will continue adding some 3,500 households
annually.
• Vacancy rates in market rental housing have declined to 0.7% - the lowest rate in 16 years. The
vacancy rate is expected to decline further in future years.
• Close to half of renters (47%) spend more than 30% of their income on housing – this trend is
expected to worsen with the number of households in core housing need growing by 44,000 by
2030, equivalent to twice the rate over past 12 years.
• Average home prices have skyrocketed leaving tenants locked into rental housing and reducing
mobility from rental housing. From 2006 to 2018, median household income grew only 30%
while average homeownership costs grew 131%.
The overheated housing market in Toronto has left many low and moderate-income residents essentially
"stuck and stressed" in a housing system that offers little choice and much risk. While researchers such as
David Hulchanski have documented the increasing segregation of residents in Toronto by socio-economic
status and dwindling middle-class, little is known about the impacts of the housing market and its social
and economic impact on resident mobility and housing satisfaction. What is known however, is the
general dissatisfaction of residents in not being able to find and keep an affordable roof over their heads.
This includes the high profile of affordable housing in the media and as a priority issue for mayoral and
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
council candidates in Toronto’s 2018 municipal election. Meanwhile, Toronto’s housing and homeless
supports system is bursting at the seams having fallen behind and being unable to keep up with current
and anticipated future demands.
Toronto’s Open Door Affordable Housing Program and the Role of Partnerships
In 2009 Toronto City Council adopted a 10-year Housing Opportunities Toronto Action Plan (HOT)
2010-2020. This plan set out the goal of achieving on average 1,000 new rental units annually or 10,000
over the 10-year period. By the end of 2015, the number of new affordable rental approvals reached 1,154
and it was clear that the City was falling short of achieving its affordable housing targets (Figure 2).
Figure 2- New Affordable Rental Homes Approved and Completed in Toronto (2010-2018)
Source: City of Toronto's Affordable Housing Office, August 2018
With the support of the new Mayor of Toronto and the City’s Housing Advocate, officials were tasked
with revamping the City’s approach in an effort to meet the annual target of 1,000 units for the period
2016 to 2020. In 2016, City Council approved a new initiative called the Open Door Program. This
unilateral City program set out a consistent approach to the approval of new affordable rental housing
through a partnership with non-profit and private sector organizations.
The essential elements of the Program provide for a suite of financial incentives, including the waiver of
development charges, planning application fees and building permit fees and the waiver of property taxes
over the period of operating the affordable housing units. Capital funding has also been added to the
Program to ensure project viability. In total, the value of these investments over a five-year period is $222
million. Approved Open Door developments were also assured of an expedited planning approval process.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Further, the Program committed the City to providing select surplus land sites for both affordable rental
and ownership housing.
Overall reception to the Program has been positive. Program applications have been robust and for the
years 2017 and 2018, approved projects have exceeded the annual target of 1,000 units. The reasons often
cited for the success of the Program include its flexible nature as it provides early certainty to non-profit
and private sector organizations on the City’s commitments to affordable housing and to their specific
project. The approval of projects in the early stages creates a pipeline of developments and eliminates the
challenging feature of other affordable housing programs for developments to be shovel ready. The
Program also provides opportunities throughout the development process to stack other funding to support
the construction of the project and/or during the operating phase. Additionally, the Program provides the
flexibility to proposed mixed market and affordable developments, with a requirement that a minimum of
20% of the gross floor area be developed as affordable rental.
The Program also has three “portals” through which affordable rental housing development partnerships
can be approved. This includes approvals through annual proposal calls, through the final planning
application approval process, and through special initiatives such as the Ontario Affordable Housing
Provincial Lands Program.
At the same time, the Open Door Program has also attracted a range of criticisms. Most recently, housing
advocates have called for the Program to provide rents on a rent-geared-to-income basis at no more than
30% of a household income. Currently the Program sets rents at the City’s Official Plan definition of no
more than the average market rent for Toronto as published annually by Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation (Figure 3).
Figure 3- Toronto Housing Rents and Affordability by Income Band
Source: City of Toronto's Affordable Housing Office, August 2018
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Non-profit groups have also been critical of the fact that the Program does not guarantee affordability in
perpetuity. The minimum affordability period for the Program is 25 years. The “pipeline” approach of
providing early project approvals rather than shovel ready projects has increased the risk of some projects
not proceeding. The longer development and completion schedules have also resulted in some level of
frustration being expressed by local politicians and the public who are looking for immediate results and
quick fixes.
The New National Housing Strategy - Growing Pains In November 2017, the federal government took a significant leap forward in introducing Canada’s first
National Housing Strategy. Advocacy for a National Housing Strategy stretches back to the 1990s when
community advocates and organizations called on the federal government to meet Canada’s obligations
embedded in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and requested that the
government dedicate 1% of the federal budget to housing. The achievement of a National Housing
Strategy some 20-years later was no small accomplishment!
• Housing Rights are Human Rights. The Strategy provides for the introduction of new legislation that
promotes a human rights-based approach to housing. It will require the federal government to maintain a
National Housing Strategy that prioritizes the housing needs of the most vulnerable. It will also require
regular reporting to Parliament on progress toward achieving the Strategy’s targets and outcomes. The
Strategy also provides for the appointment of a Federal Housing Advocate and a National Housing
Council to promote participatory and evidence-based analysis.
• National Housing Co-Investment Fund: The Strategy provides for a federally managed National
Housing Co-Investment Fund to create up to 60,000 new units of housing and repair up to 240,000 units
of existing affordable and community housing. The Fund was launched in May 2018 and consists of $4.52
billion in funding and $8.65 billion in low interest loans. The Co-Investment Fund must be supplemented
by investments from another order of government with contributions from other partners including
provinces and municipalities. To maximize the impact of the Co-Investment Fund the government intends
to combine contributions and loans with the transfer of up to $200 million in federal lands to community
and affordable housing providers over 10 years.
• Maintaining a Resilient Community Housing Sector. Through a $4.3 billion Canada Community
Housing Initiative the federal government will protect and build a sustainable community-based housing
sector. As long-term social housing operating agreements expire, resulting in the potential loss of
affordable housing units, the federal government will renew their investments to protect low-income
households and stabilize the operations of housing providers. This program is intended to protect
affordability for 385,000 households living in community housing administered by the provinces and
supported by former federal programs. In order to participate in the program provinces will be required to
cost-match the funding. This component of the Strategy also provides for a unilateral $500 million Federal
Community Housing Initiative to put in place new operating agreements on federally administered
housing to support subsidies for tenants in need.
• A New Canada Housing Benefit. The Strategy provides for a $4 billion new housing benefit to be
developed in partnership with the provinces and territories to support some 300,000 households at an
average of $2,500 per year. The federal government will work with the provinces and territories to
develop the Canada Housing Benefit to be launched in 2020.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
• Letting Communities Lead: A Plan to Make Homelessness History. The Strategy confirms the plans for
the federal government to invest $2.2 billion over the next 10 years to tackle homelessness through an
expanded program. It calls for reducing chronic homelessness within 10 years by 50%. The redesigned
program will be launched April 1, 2019 and be based on the advice from the federal Advisory Committee
on Homelessness.
• “Nothing About Us, Without Us”. The Strategy states: “No relationship is more important to the
Government than the one with Indigenous peoples. Indigenous leaders have told us that there is a pressing
need to co-develop federally supported distinctions-based First Nations, Inuit and Metis Nation housing
strategies that are founded in principles of self-determination, reconciliation, respect and co-operation.”
Moving forward the government is continuing to develop a specific Indigenous Housing Strategy.
• Evidence-Based Housing: Research, Data and Demonstrations. The Strategy confirms $241 million in
funding over 10 years to enhance housing research, data and demonstrations. This is to be accomplished
through developing tools within government to address data gaps and measure outcomes from the
Strategy; through building capacity for partnership outside of government; and supporting researchers and
introducing housing labs.
• Improving Homeownership Options for Canadians. The Strategy outlines the government’s efforts to
maintain access to homeownership through their existing mortgage loan insurance program and through
removing some barriers to homeownership. It also commits to ongoing research to inform policy on
homeownership, urban planning and infrastructure investments.
With all that the National Housing Strategy promises, it is important to contextualize it and to highlight
where it falls short and where improvements could be made.
• The asserting of federal jurisdiction in the area of housing is a very welcomed development;
however, it brings with it the risk that unilateral federally delivered programs will not effectively
respond to or reflect local housing conditions.
• In Ontario, for almost 20-years the responsibility for housing and homeless service system
planning and program delivery has been devolved to 47 Service Managers. With the new “one-
window” for accessing housing and homelessness funding and initiatives, there is a high risk of
service system confusion among affordable housing stakeholders who now have to access and co-
ordinate between government programs.
• In Ontario, the National Housing Strategy Bi-lateral Agreement with the province was signed with
the previous Liberal provincial government. With the election of a new Progressive Conservative
government in June 2018 there is considerable uncertainty about how the Bi-lateral Agreement
will be implemented and how the provincial housing policy and programs will be impacted.
• While the National Housing Strategy sets out ambitious goals, there is no specific funding or
support to build development and operating capacity within the non-profit and supportive housing
sectors. This is essential should the Strategy effectively look to those most in need. Furthermore,
in Ontario the Service Managers risk losing municipal affordable housing development capacity
with the replacing of the Investment in Affordable Housing Program with the phase in of a
National Housing Benefit.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
• Lastly, on the important issue of surplus federal lands, the Strategy commits a modest $200
million over 10-years to support the use of surplus lands for affordable housing. Given the value
of federal land in urban centres, the $200 million falls significantly short on the amount of funds
needed to off-set the value of many urban federal surplus properties. The Strategy’s approach to
surplus lands for affordable housing needs to be broadened if it is to have real impact. This could
include providing land-banking funding to support strategic provincial/territorial/municipal land
acquisitions for affordable housing. It could also include requiring as a condition of sale or lease
of federal sites a specific percentage of affordable rental housing to be achieved.
Public Land as a Catalyst for Affordable Housing Partnerships
High housing costs and a shortage of housing supply in urban centres in Canada are certainly not a new
phenomenon. These issues appear and then disappear through economic cycles. What is new is that
today’s housing challenges have persisted and grown due to the current extended period of unprecedented
economic and urban growth. As a result, housing market forces have left many low and middle income
Canadians behind in producing and providing the housing they need. This section will provide an
overview of how public land can be a catalyst for affordable housing partnerships and spur the
construction of affordable rental housing resulting from market failure.
One has to look back some 65 years to find the seminal reports on the high cost of land and how this was a
contributing factor to the high cost of housing. These reports also called for aggressive land policies to
support the government purchase of land and the use of public land for urban growth and low-income
housing. The reports also had a major impact on Canadian housing policies and programs, in leading the
way to shifting national policy to the community-based non-profit and co-operative housing delivery of
non-market housing. In these times of high housing costs it is instructive to return to these reports and
review some of the key findings and recommendations.
The “Report of the Task Force on Housing and Urban Development, 1969" recommended,
“Municipalities or regional governments, as a matter of continuing policy, should acquire, service, and sell
all or a substantial portion of the land required for urban growth within their boundaries. The federal
government should make direct loans to municipalities or regional governments to assist them in
assembling and servicing land for urban growth.”
Several years later, the 1972 report “Programs in Search of a Policy: Low Income Housing in Canada” by
Michael Dennis and Susan Fish, devote an entire chapter to Land Assembly and Land Banking. In their
report they found “rising land prices are a major culprit in housing price inflation. Those prices have
quadrupled in the last 20 years. Increased land and servicing costs have pushed residential land
development and planning into the hands of small groups of large developers”. They concluded “we agree
with the recommendation of the Hellyer Task Force that public land assembly and development is the best
and most comprehensive method of dealing with land price, windfall profits and the improvement of the
planning process”.
Fast forwarding to today’s housing situation, one finds reports and explanations as to why the country and
urban centres are suffering from runaway housing markets where housing goes to the highest bidder.
Given the fact that prices for ownership housing are hitting the roof and there are calls for action on the
affordability crisis, governments at all levels are looking to policy measures to cool the market.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Meanwhile, the competition for multi-residential building sites in Toronto continues apace with no end in
sight. While there were hundreds of multi-residential commercial transactions in recent years, the prices
have been staggering and increasing with every sale. Consider just two publicly owned development sites
recently sold in downtown Toronto – the former Dufferin Street school surplus site is selling for $121.5
million and the federal surplus site at 1 Front Street West sells for $275 million.
The Financial Post recently reported that, “…the average condo lot sale price in the second quarter across
Greater Toronto Area reached $64 per buildable square foot, which accounts for the density of a project.
Ten years ago that price was in the $30-range across the GTA.” Is it any wonder that these rising land
values will produce higher cost housing that is even more unaffordable for those residents with low and
moderate-incomes?
As reported by the McKinsey Global Institute in a global study, “Land cost often is the single biggest
factor in improving the economics of affordable housing development. It is not uncommon for land costs
to exceed 40% of total property prices, and in some large cities, land can be as much as 80% of property
cost.” The study further identifies six mechanisms to unlock land for affordable housing development
including:
• Smart, transit-orientated development
• Releasing public land
• Unlocking serviced idle land
• Enabling development through land assembly or readjustment
• Ensuring clear titles and formalizing informal land use
• Improving urban land-use and using inclusionary planning (Woetzel et al. 2014).
In recognition of the role of land as a determining factor in delivering affordable housing, in recent times
governments across the globe have been adopting land policies and programs to support affordable
housing on public lands. The cities of London, England; San Francisco, United States; and Vancouver,
Canada are three jurisdictions with positive affordable housing public land policies.
A Snapshot of Toronto’s Recent Public Land Experience in Delivering Affordable Housing
It is now some twenty-one years ago that the new City of Toronto was created through the amalgamation
of five local governments and the Metropolitan Regional government. Over this period of time a series of
public land initiatives impacting the development of affordable housing have emerged.
Toronto’s Housing First Policy
In 1999, the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing and Homelessness reported with a set of 106
recommendations aimed at addressing the growing homeless population and providing a comprehensive
blueprint to address affordable housing. Specifically, it contained a recommendation to use surplus public
land for affordable housing which stated, "The City should develop a 'Housing First' policy municipal
lands to make suitable sites available for affordable housing, while retaining long-term City interest in the
sites." This resulted in Toronto City Council adopting a Housing First policy in 1999 when disposing of
surplus properties. Since then, this policy supported the development of 2,965 affordable housing units on
48 City surplus sites.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
The City’s Housing First policy remains in place but was subsequently revised in 2009 when the City
approved the transfer of surplus properties to a new corporation – Build Toronto. Build Toronto was
primarily concerned with the disposal of sites at the high and best value and returning a financial dividend
to the City. However, in later years under new leadership Build Toronto developed a track-record of
contributing to new affordable rental and ownership housing, including contributing a portion of its land
proceeds to write-down the affordable units.
In 2018, Build Toronto was subsequently rolled into a new consolidated Toronto real estate entity named
CreateTO. CreateTO provides a new vehicle to review the City’s surplus land policies for affordable
housing and most importantly, has an explicit city building and affordable housing mandate.
Leveraging Public Housing Land
Following the municipal amalgamation in Toronto and the provincial transfer (downloading) of housing to
Ontario municipalities, the new City was faced with a decision on how to administer the various public
housing agencies – specifically the Metro Toronto Housing Company, CityHome, and the Metropolitan
Toronto Housing Authority. In 2000, City Council amalgamated the three public housing agencies into a
new arms-length corporation named Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). Almost 60,000
residential units were transferred to TCHC and the new corporation was given broad independent powers
to operate.
Immediately following the creation of TCHC, the new leadership developed a public/private sector model
of public housing revitalization. This model provided for the replacement of large public housing
communities with new mixed-income communities by leveraging profits from the sale of public land to
provide for the full replacement of social housing. Most importantly, the revitalization guaranteed the
right of return to every social housing resident. The public housing revitalization projects approved by
TCHC and City Council were bold, long-term, and unprecedented billion dollar social and economic
investments undertaken in partnership with the private development community and impacted residents.
Today there are six major revitalization initiatives underway representing the replacement of some 4,805
rent-geared-to-income social housing homes and the addition of 13,500 new market ownership homes.
The revitalization sites include: Regent Park, Alexandra Park, Lawrence Heights, Allenbury Gardens,
Leslie Nymark and 250 Davenport Road. In Regent Park, so far some 1,002 new affordable rental homes
have been achieved through leveraging $70 million of federal/provincial affordable housing funding and
$37.5 million in City financial incentives. The revitalization of these communities has been achieved
through the application of planning and social development principles supporting strong “complete
communities”. As a result, in addition to the creation of replacement and new housing units, the formerly
isolated public housing projects are re-integrated into the adjacent community through reconnecting the
street grid, the inclusion of new community facilities, the fostering of new commercial uses and the
employment of public housing residents throughout the process.
Case Study: The West Don Lands Public Lands Affordable Housing Legacy
The West Don Lands are located in downtown Toronto near the west side of the mouth of the Don River.
The area consists of 80 acres of land and historically supported land uses of heavy industry, stockyards,
scrapyards, rail uses and a distillery. In 1987 in response to the need for new affordable housing the
Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto announced the multi-million dollar expropriation of all of the
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
businesses within the West Don Lands. The lands were initially owned by the City of Toronto with the
intention of creating a new community of 7,000 homes named Ataratiri.
However, the Ataratiri project was cancelled in 1992 primarily as the cost of remediating the soil to new
environmental standards and the need for flood protection were beyond the City’s financial means.
Subsequently, the lands were transferred to the Ontario government in 1996. For the next several years the
lands sat abandoned with the exception of residual uses and the opening of a new a homeless shelter. At
one point the provincial government considered the siting of a racetrack on the lands.
Figure4 – West Don Lands Phasing Map
Source: City of Toronto
The catalyst for change came in 1999 with a federal, provincial and City tri-government agreement to
support Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. This effort led to an agreement to establish a new tri-
government agency known today as Waterfront Toronto. The new agency was given funding and
responsibility to lead the development of 2,000 acres of brownfield lands on Toronto’s waterfront into
beautiful, accessible, sustainable mixed-use communities and dynamic public spaces. This included the
full build out of 40,000 new homes. With the creation of Waterfront Toronto, new attention was brought
to the West Don Lands. Working with local residents groups and Waterfront Toronto, the City designated
the area as Regeneration Area and Parks and Open Space Areas. This plan placed a requirement that 20%
of all new residential housing be required to be developed as affordable rental housing, thus guaranteeing
a mix of incomes in the community.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Phase One – New TCHC Homes
While the 2008 Olympic Games were ultimately awarded to Bejing the City’s Olympic bid had created
the momentum needed to kick-start the first phase of the West Don Lands redevelopment process. After
many years of planning and false starts by 2014 the first phase of the community was beginning to take
shape. Key infrastructure requirements were in place, including the construction of a flood protection
berm, the design and build out of the 18 acre Corktown Common Park, and the completion of new
residential housing.
Critical to the successful implementation of the first phase of development was the reaching of an
agreement in 2009 among Waterfront Toronto, the Ontario government and the City of Toronto that they
would provide serviced and clean land available at no cost to support the development of the affordable
rental housing. The West Don Lands Affordable Housing Agreement provided the foundation for a
partnership among the parties to support TCHC in the construction of 243 new affordable seniors and
family TCHC rental homes at River Street and King Street West. Investments from the federal/provincial
Affordable Housing Program, the City of Toronto and TCHC provided the capital to construct the homes.
The West Don Lands first phase development was underway but what about phases two and three where
the majority of the land still remained vacant. A further catalyst was soon on the horizon. That catalyst
came in the form of the provincially back City bid to host the Pan American Games to be held in 2016.
Phase Two – New Non-Profit Homes
Through strong leadership from the Ontario government and the former Premier David Peterson, the City
won the bid to host the Pan Am Games in 2015. The bid plan called for the creation of a village in the
West Don Lands to house the expected 10,000 athletes. As the owners of the West Don Lands, the
provincial agency Infrastructure Ontario (IO) assumed the lead in securing a private development partner
and ensure the build out of the next phase on time and on budget. Through a special Pan Am Office the
City co-ordinated the involvement of various City Divisions throughout and during the Games. Most
importantly, IO and the Ontario Ministry of Housing engaged the City’s Affordable Housing Office in the
detailed planning, approving the specifications and selection of two non-profit organizations who would
own and operate 253 units of affordable housing in two rental buildings.
This unique arrangement where the master developer of the Pan Am Village and the Province of Ontario
would build and turn over the ownership of the buildings the new owners and operators was the first of its
kind in Toronto. This unique partnership resulted in new affordable non-profit housing for Fred Victor
Homes to provide housing for low-income and vulnerable residents and Wigwamen to provide housing
focused on the needs of indigenous residents
Phase Three – The Public/Private Partnership
With the Pan Am Games successfully completed attention turned to how to maintain the momentum in
building out the new community. The key issue was how to fund the build out of the affordable rental
housing. This time the catalyst came not from a sporting event but directly from Toronto’s overheated
housing market. With rapidly rising house prices in the Greater Toronto Area, a shortage of affordable
rental accommodation and cases of evictions from rent increases the federal, provincial and City
governments all introduced measures to “cool” the housing market and provide new supply. In particular,
the province introduced the Ontario Fair Housing Plan and the Ontario Affordable Housing Lands
Program.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
The first phase of the Ontario Affordable Housing Lands Program identified Blocks 3W, 4W, 7W, 8 and
20 in the West Don Lands for new residential development. In working with the City of Toronto, the
Province created a new public/private sector development model where “the primary objective through
this premier urban land site offer is to leverage the prized land value of Sites in exchange for a
conscientiously designed mixed market and affordable rental housing development. To this effect, the
collective vision for the Properties is that they are specifically developed in a manner that effectively
marries a broad range of residential unit layouts and accommodates a wide diversity of low to high-
income residents.”
The West Don Lands offering provided a total of 550,000 sq. ft. of residential and mixed used density
where the builder/operator would be required to provide 30% of the residential units (390) at affordable
rent levels of ten percent at 40% of average market rent, forty percent at 80% of average market rents and
fifty percent of the units at 100% of average market rents for a lease term of 99 years. In return for
providing the affordable housing, the developer obtained a 99-year discounted leased to reduce up-front
land costs. As part of the offering package the City pre-approved Open Door Program municipal financial
incentives for the affordable housing units. The incentives included waiver of planning, building and
development charge fees and property taxes for the duration of the lease. The planning approvals are also
being fast-tracked. It has taken some 30 years but the Toronto-Ontario vision of a new mixed-income
community in the West Don Lands is finally being realized. At present, 886 affordable rental homes are
being developed as a result of strong public/private partnerships leveraging the essential value of public
lands in delivering affordability.
Conclusion: Ramping Up a Public Lands for Affordable Housing Strategy
Addressing the affordable housing crisis is on the top of the agendas for many global cities. It is of little
surprise that given the range of housing and homeless issues facing Toronto, increasing the supply of
affordable rental housing has emerged as a top priority. The City has developed a range of program and
policy tools to stimulate new supply. In particular, Toronto’s Open Door Program provides a range of
incentives to eligible non-profit and private builders.
The new National Housing Strategy is also welcomed as the federal government has an important
leadership and funding role to play - as do provinces and other housing stakeholders. But in efforts to
scale up new affordable rental housing, governments must look carefully at the importance of public land
to leverage affordable rental housing in new developments. This applies to existing land assets and the
potential to secure strategic land sites for affordable housing such as through purchase, expropriation, and
inclusionary zoning practices.
The City of Toronto’s experience and track record demonstrate that it is possible to successfully develop
new mixed-income communities and new affordable housing on existing and surplus municipal lands. The
shining example of success of leveraging partnerships for affordable rental housing is the 30-year
partnership between the Ontario government and the City of Toronto. While not the silver bullet solution
to the urban affordable housing crisis, the strategic use of public land has an important role in contributing
to solutions today and for generations to come.
Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
Some Suggestions on Leveraging Affordable Rental Housing Land Partnerships
o Develop a local inventory of municipal, provincial and federal land assets and a strategy for
activation using a Housing First policy approach.
o Develop a strategy to support strategic land acquisition for affordable rental housing partnership
purposes.
o Find and/or create a catalyst event or activity that could support an affordable rental housing
partnership on public land.
o Examine other municipal, provincial, federal policies and programs to leverage the value of public
lands.
o Examine and learn from the experiences, successes and failures of other jurisdictions,
o Advertise the success stories in leveraging public land to achieve affordable housing to foster
more public buy-in and awareness.
Acknowledgments
This paper has been prepared with input and assistance of Mercedeh Madani, Policy Development Officer,
Affordable Housing Office. Views expressed in this paper are those of the author.
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Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships
Conference Proceedings: Partnerships for Affordable Rental Housing, University of Calgary, November 15-17, 2018
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