Toronto's proposed affordable housing plan requires billions in federal, provincial funding

Toronto officials have revealed a first look at the city's new, accelerated plans to build affordable housing — but that plan will require billions of dollars in federal and provincial funding to make it happen.

In a report released Tuesday that is scheduled to go before executive committee next week, the deputy city manager of development and growth services lays out a look at the proposal, and highlights that Toronto is experiencing a "financial crisis" in both the short and long term.

"Despite the City of Toronto taking an increased role in the delivery of new affordable homes in recent years, Toronto's housing and homelessness crisis has worsened and now demands an even more robust range of actions across the housing continuum to adequately address the needs of current and future residents," the report reads. 

"Increasing the supply of new homes across the full continuum is necessary to reduce pressures throughout the entire housing system, improve housing affordability and access particularly for lower- and middle-income households, and to support growth."

But increasing that supply would be costly. The city has set a target of 65,000 new rent-controlled homes, and funding has been secured for 4,455 of those. 

The report says the cost to deliver the remaining 60,545 homes is between $28.6 billion and $31.5 billion — leaving an estimated $3.7 billion and $5.3 billion in funding required from both the provincial and federal governments.

The city also says an additional $13 to $14 billion would be required from higher levels of government through loans, which officials say could then be repaid through rental income.

"These required financial investments, although significant, are necessary to restore some level of affordability after decades of insufficient public investments in housing," the report reads.

The city also notes those funding estimates are "high-level and sensitive to market conditions including interest rate fluctuations and construction costs" — costs that have ballooned for construction projects across the country in recent years, after pandemic-related supply chain issues.

The city has already had to push for increased funding from both the federal and provincial governments this year, after asylum seekers were forced to sleep on the streets due to an overburdened shelter system.

Both higher levels of government did provide increased funding in an effort to curb that mounting problem, but the city still ended up urging the federal government to provide more funding, and funding that was sustainable over the long term.

The report makes it clear that the request for housing funding is distinct from Toronto's request for a new "fiscal framework" to address the city's $1.5 billion budget deficit. 

"A new fiscal deal to support the structural changes that will put Toronto on a path to long-term financial sustainability plus a commitment from the federal and provincial governments to invest in the HousingTO Plan," the report notes.

In a statement accompanying a news release about the report, Mayor Olivia Chow said the city is "leading a generational shift" in how the city provides housing and what type of housing is being built.