Season's Greetings!
Is the Mayor's Housing Plan providing value for money?
Mayor Tory should be applauded for recognizing that providing more affordable housing is necessary to ensure that Toronto remains an inclusive city that supports our diverse and vibrant residents. With out of control rents, crumbling social housing, and far too many Torontonians in shelters or on the streets, there is no doubt that we are in the midst of a crisis. I supported the HousingTO 2020-30 Action Plan because we need to move forward as quickly as possible to repair TCHC buildings and build new affordable housing. However, there are questions remaining as to whether the Mayor's strategy to build new housing allows the City to build the most units with the resources we have available. The Action Plan builds new units by offering a combination of City land, tax breaks, and the elimination of Development Charges to encourage the private sector to build housing in mixed developments. This allows the City to have affordable units built with no upfront payment and allows the Mayor to announce new housing without raising tax dollars for that purpose – The City Building Fund, mentioned below, will be used for transit and repairing social housing, not building new units. Perhaps the Mayor's plan is the way forward. But Council has not been provided with evidence to back up that claim. With the support of Council, I asked the City Manager to provide a Value for Money assessment of this approach over a year ago but unfortunately that report has yet to be delivered. During the debate, I moved a motion requesting that this assessment be completed in the new year before we moved forward with the plan. However, this time, the Mayor did not support having that review completed. I don't know whether the Mayor's housing plan makes sense. I hope it does. But there is no evidence that other options were studied. Even the land valuations for the properties we are providing to developers have not been made public. What I do know is that the revenue lost in property tax and development charge giveaways will have to be made up in the future with a tax hike or service cuts. What I do know is that a few other major cities around the world are taking this approach to building affordable housing. That leaves me with a lot of questions. I assure you I will keep looking for the answers and support creating opportunities to make Toronto more affordable.
