The city could provide about $50 million in funding and other financial incentives towards the construction of eight housing projects that will include nearly new 700 affordable units if council signs off on the recommendations of staff, Mayor John Tory says.
The development projects have all been approved by staff as part of the city’s Open Door program, wherein developers that commit to building affordable units can be eligible for capital funding and other financial incentives, such as waved development charges.
Tory said that for the 2019 application period, which ran from February until May, staff have approved eight projects, which will include a total of 651 affordable units.
He said that those units will all have rents that are capped at between 40 to 80 per cent of the market rate.
“This announcement today is a measure of the success we are having in that people who might otherwise have chosen to build a condo or rental apartments but not affordable rental apartments are now doing both,” he said. “We are trying to influence what is otherwise a marketplace decision, which by and large opts these days to build condos, and I think we are making progress. I think there is a great deal of increased interest today in the building of rental housing, including affordable rental housing.”
Tory said that the city will be contributing $12.3 million in capital funding to the projects, another $25.4 million in forgone revenue from things like waved development charges and building permit fees and $12.8 million in property tax exceptions.
In return, he said that the developers will agree to ensure that the affordable units remain so for a period of at least 30 years or in some cases “in perpetuity” – three of the eight approved projects are being built by non-profit entities.
The projects range in scope from a three-storey building on College Street near Dovercourt Road that would include 17 affordable units to a highrise on Birchmount Road at Lawrence Avenue that would include 220 affordable units.
Tory said that of the developments approved by staff, one could be completed as early as March while others are likely to be wrapped up in 2021 and 2022.
According to a staff report, the combined value of the city funding and financial incentives averages out to $58,850 per unit.
“We really are trying to focus on not just sort of announcing that things have been approved and that might get build sometime down the road. These are units that will come on stream in a reasonable period of time and we are looking at every opportunity to expedite that,” Tory said.
Since 2016, a total of 6,694 affordable rental units have been approved as part of the Open Door program.
City council still has to sign off on the latest approvals.
