Dear Ward 24 Neighbours,
At the January 30th City Council Meeting, Mayor John Tory’s first item of business of implementing the “Housing Now” initiative was approved increasing the supply of new affordable rental housing within mixed-income communities by making municipally-owned properties available to non-profit and private organizations.
The Housing Now Initiative represents a new city-building approach to the disposition of City-owned lands. In December 2018, City Council approved this initiative to activate 11 City-owned sites (the 11 Properties) for the development of affordable housing within mixed-income, mixed-use and transit-oriented communities.
The first phase of this initiative included the following:
- Activating the 11 Properties for the potential to create approximately 10,000 new residential units.
- A proposed minimum of 2/3 of all residential units created on the 11 Properties will be purpose-built rental housing with at least 50 % of the rental units as affordable rental housing.
This phase is in addition to provide affordable rental homes in partnership between non-City sites with non-profit and private housing organizations through the 2019 Open Door Call for Affordable Rental Housing Applications.
Moreover, the next phase provides:
- City staff and CreateTO will undertake more detailed due diligence for each of the 11 Properties.
- Report to the CreateTO Board of Directors on directions and impacts prior to marketing.
In the absence of this Housing Now Initiative, the 11 Properties would be sold at market prices mainly resulting in the development of market condominiums.
In recognition of the urgency to provide affordable rental housing in our city, this initiative sets action to create much needed affordable rental housing in mixed-income communities.
See these links for complete meeting agenda and news release.
City Council and other City of Toronto Committees can be watched live here at this link.
All my best,
Paul