Toronto to get $471M in federal cash as part of new housing deal

Toronto will receive $471 million in federal funding to build new homes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office announced Thursday.

The money is coming out of Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund and should help Toronto build around 12,000 new units over three years, Trudeau said at an announcement in Toronto. In the next decade, it should help facilitate more than 53,000 units.

Trudeau said Toronto will make development easier by simplifying zoning requirements and modernizing regulations. He said the city will also expand existing affordable rental programs and build more homes near transit.

"[Toronto] is a great city, and if we want to keep it great, we have to make homes more affordable. People who come here need to be able to afford to build a life and a family," Trudeau said.

Trudeau and federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser joined Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow for the announcement.

Fraser said too many people in Toronto have long commutes to class or find jobs in areas they can't afford to live in. Along with density near transit, he said this deal will lead to a "dramatic" increase in density near post-secondary institutions.

"It's going to allow people to live where the services and economic opportunities are, in the communities that already have infrastructure to support them," Fraser said.

Chow welcomed Thursday's announcement.

"Today's Dec. 21 [the] Winter Solstice, it's a time that we put darkness behind use. It's a time for a new beginning, for transformation. And we have gathered here to announce a hopeful new beginning," Chow said.

Mayor Olivia Chow said Thursday's announcement marked a new beginning for the city. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Along with bolstering housing supply, the deal will also take action to address so-called renovictions in Toronto, according to the news release issued by Trudeau's office. The release does not detail how this would be done.

The Housing Accelerator Fund aims to create 380,000 new homes in the next decade. A Canadian Mortgage and Housing Report released in September said Ontario alone will need 1.84 million homes by 2030.

Asked if today's announcement to create more than 53,000 homes is only a drop in the bucket, Trudeau said the fund isn't just about building units but changing the rules so more density can be created without direct investment from the federal government.

Announcement comes after city asked to tweak application

The announcement comes a month after Fraser told the city it would need to change its building policies if it wants to access its share of the housing fund. At council last week, city councillors voted to approve changes that would improve Toronto's application to Ottawa.

Some of the changes voted through include the city looking to permit four-storey residential development as-of-right — meaning the owner is entitled to develop the property freely —  and considerations to allow six units with the same permissions. The city also committed to putting affordable units near public transit.

The $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund is a federal initiative to encourage municipalities to make changes to bylaws and regulations that would spur more housing construction, in exchange for more money.

Some of the changes Ottawa has pushed for include denser zoning and faster issuance of permits.

Including the announcement today, Ottawa has reached deals with 16 municipalities across the country.

City application included 8 initiatives

The homes built through the deal will include new rent-geared-to-income units and market rental homes located within mixed-income, mixed-use and transit oriented communities, according to a city news release accompanying the announcement.

When applying for money from the federal fund, the city outlined eight initiatives it would use to quickly increase affordable housing in Toronto:

• Transforming the processes and technology used to speed up the review development applications.

• Revitalizing Toronto Community Housing properties while creating new rent-geared-to-income homes.

• Protecting rental homes and supporting renters.

• Developing city land into new rental homes.

• Transforming the city's waterfront to support social, economic and cultural growth.

• A new rental housing supply incentives program.

• Expanding missing middle housing, meaning low rise residences that aren't single family homes.

• Simplifying the planning approvals process to increase rentals in apartment neighbourhood zones.