Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through ... · Tackling Toronto’s Affordable Housing Challenges through Leveraging Public Land Partnerships Sean Gadon City of

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

mailto:[email protected]

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

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/97c8-SSHA-Analysis-of-shelter-use2011-2016.pdf



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.



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



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.



• 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.



• 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.



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.



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



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.



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.



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.



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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Dennis, M. and Fish, S. (1972) Programs in Search of a Policy: Low Income Housing in Canada, Hakkert, pp 13,

328.

Golden, A. (1999) Taking Responsibility for Homelessness: An Action Plan for Toronto: Report of the Mayor's

Homelessness Action Task Force, City of Toronto.

Government of Canada (2017) Canada's National Housing Strategy. Retrieved September 13, 2018 from:

https://www.placetocallhome.ca/pdfs/Canada-National-Housing-Strategy.pdf.

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