Mixed-income neighbourhoods
“There’s always danger in social
engineering but the very notion that there should be access to
good-quality housing in all parts of the city regardless of one’s
income … is where (the ideal of mixed neighbourhoods) comes from.”
—Liberal MPP Peter Milczyn
Toronto Star 11 April 2015
There is no doubt that housing costs are extremely high in Toronto and
that affordable housing is difficult to find in the downtown core. It
is also recognized by everyone that Toronto's public housing is in
crisis with too many people trying to get a unit and many of the
apartments and townhouses are falling apart.
It is also recognized that the federal and provincial governments are
not going to put much money into new affordable housing or repair
existing public housing stocks.
Are condos the solution?
So where does that leave us? Condos. Some see new private
condo developments as gold mines that will provide housing for almost
everyone.
As this Toronto Star
news report states, social activists, city planners and some
politicians and university professors feel that three changes to the provincial laws can solve
our affordable housing problems.
1. Mixed-income neighbourhoods
Public housing can be re-built if developers are required to pay for
public housing buildings along side of their for-profit rental and
condominium residential buildings.
The new developments at Lawrence Heights and Regent Park are the models they want followed by all new developments.
2. Vertical diversity
Developers must include some affordable housing units in all of their
new residential developments. They may be affordable rentals,
rent-geared to income or affordable condo ownership.
3. Additional rent controls
All rental units in the city should fall under rent controls. This
includes condo rental units. (This became law in Ontario in 2017.)
Who pays?
The activists say that all the new affordable housing units will not
cost the public a nickel. The city will allow the developers to exceed existing building
heights which will generate extra profits, some of which will pay for Inclusionary Housing.
Of course condos are not golden geese. The condo purchasers will be hit
with higher prices up front and may have to pay higher common expenses
down the road. Developers are already hit with heavy development costs and Section 37 contributions. When will enough be enough?
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