Question 1 response We need…

Question 1 response
We need more education around the major potential of adapting and using existing structures more efficiently to house more people more quickly and more inexpensively than building new.

We need more skilled and experienced professionals/tradespeople who recognize the potential of existing structures to house more people quickly and efficiently. From a climate crisis perspective, fixing up an existing building is better for the environment than tearing it down and replacing it with new materials. It's also a cheaper and faster option considering current global supply issues. Yet we are rarely offered these options.

Large investment companies instead convince municipal and provincial officials only new buildings can solve the housing crisis. This just adds more red tape, more time and more cost to the process, while easier and faster solutions are ignored.

Let's show examples of adaptive reuse and use them as education.

Question 2 response:
Let's educate people about what can currently be done without requiring planning, development or even building permits.
E.g. many municipalities allow three unrelated persons to live together in a single building. Many people could be sharing their houses, without losing their privacy, and supplementing their income, at minimal cost, if they just knew how.

Developing and publicizing easy expanded use examples is a first step. If Ministry and Municipal Affairs Ministry staff took the lead in this, they could share shortcuts and examples of time and money-saving measures developed in one municipality with others. No need to reinvent the wheel! Let's share best practices so all communities across Ontario can benefit.

Question 3 response:
Some examples of adaptive reuse:
- Preston School seniors’ apartments in Preston
- Eva’s Phoenix in downtown Toronto - transitional housing
- Park Lofts, Annette Street, Toronto
- Chapel Street Lofts, Cobourg; a church, then a library and now six condos
- Seagram Lofts, Lakeshore, Toronto

There are innovative organizations like the non-profit Trinity Centres Foundation that are doing this work in re-using and reimagining empty places of worship across Ontario (and Canada) for this very purpose . They would be an excellent potential partner to reach out to, to find innovative solutions. Their work indicates there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of empty houses of worship, or aging and shrinking congregations looking to find new and useful purpose for their buildings.

Question 4 response:
Increase the number of second-storey rentals over Main Street Heritage Commercial establishments by loosening restrictions on secondary staircases.