'HousingTO' Action Plan Calls for 40,000 Affordable Units in Ten Years

[Updated December 18, 2019]

Jennifer Pagliaro and Emily Mathieu report from Toronto on the funding necessary to make good on one of Mayor John Tory's signature campaign issues: 40,000 new affordable homes built over the next decade.

A new ten-year housing plan, called the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan, lays out the funding sources for that ambitious target, and the city will rely on outside sources for half the money needed to build all of those affordable houses, according to Pagliaro and Mathieu. In total, the city will need an estimated $23.4 billion to meet those targets.

"But the success of what city staff called an 'aggressive housing agenda' relies heavily on the federal and provincial governments, asking them to put up $14.9 billion over 10 years. The report also fails to outline a funding plan, promising further details through the 2020 budget process," according to the article.

The announcement of the Housing Opportunities Toronto plan comes concurrently with an announcement that Mayor Tory would pursue increased levies on property to help fund affordable housing and transit. As noted in the source article, "the city currently provides land and financial incentives to developers through two housing programs designed under Tory’s administration, Open Door and Housing Now."

[Update: The current name of Toronto's housing plan has been corrected. The current plan is called the "HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan." The city's previous ten-year plan was called the "Housing Opportunities Toronto: Affordable Housing Action Plan 2010-2020."]