Mark Richardson, the technical lead for research and advocacy group HousingNowTO, says not baking an affordable housing requirement into this land was a missed opportunity. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)
“We need tens of thousands of units for households who earn between $30,000 and $80,000 a year,” he said.
“Teachers, personal support workers, nurses, paramedics — the kinds of people who keep the city running can no longer afford to live in the city of Toronto,” he said.
Richardson says he’s worried about a possible pattern as more such sites come up for sale at other future Ontario Line stations, calling the move a “lost opportunity.” He points out the government also didn’t bake in any affordable housing sites when it sold off other Metrolinx land next to a GO station in the city’s east end atMain and Danforth recently.
The province has provided MZOs for five other sites on the southern portion of the Ontario Line that, combined with the King and Bathurst site, will represent about 8,000 units. The other five sites include Exhibition, Queen Spadina, Corktown, East Harbour and Gerrard, with more sites on the line expected to be added later.
“There needs to be a clear mandatory, affordable housing requirements put onto all of these sites before they go out to market,” said Richardson, adding a solution could include affordable rental units, affordable units to buy, co-op housing or other affordable options.
“At the moment we don’t have any obligation for any kind of affordability,” he said. “Let’s at least lock in something before these sites start being awarded to developers.”
‘They need to reverse course’: NDP housing critic
NDP Housing Critic Jessica Bell says the listing lacking any requirements for affordable housing is a concern to her too.
“It’s a massive lost opportunity,” she said. “They need to reverse course.”
“When they [the current provincial government] opened up new public land for development, they have made no requirement to build affordable housing for low or moderate-income people or even middle-income people at this point,” she said.