I am a member of a residents…

I am a member of a residents association focused on affordable housing promotion. We are committed to ensuring that the affordable housing needs of our low- and middle-income neighbours are met, and advocating for policy change to expand affordable housing supply is an important part of our work. I appreciate that the Bill 108 (Schedule 12) More Homes, More Choice Act intends to support this goal, but have serious concerns that, as currently designed, it may not achieve this end effectively.

I have also run nine housing policy consultations with over 100 low- and middle-income residents of my area; as well as a consultation with representatives of over 20 organizations working in the housing and social service sectors. I have three recommendations for Bill 108, which address serious concerns that my neighbours and I have around housing and development issues.

There is widespread frustration about the large condominium developments that are coming into our neighbourhoods, which are having complex and troubling impacts. These include infrastructure-related issues such as overcrowding of streets, transit, and parks; as well as indirect economic impacts of pushing up prices of housing, goods, and services by attracting wealthier residents into the neighbourhood, making life increasingly costly for current residents. Compounding the problem, the developments are not providing any new housing units that lower-income residents can afford.

I have two recommendations for Bill 108 that will help address these concerns:

The Proposed Changes to the Planning Act - Schedule 12 of Bill 108 should be revised to permit inclusionary zoning in all areas that the market can support in each municipality, not just in major transit system and development permit system areas identified by the province. My neighbours, community partner organizations, and I strongly support affordable set-asides through inclusionary zoning, and want a strong policy that meets a wide range of affordability needs. Given the extreme struggle to find affordable housing that is impacting even middle class Ontarians, it is essential to design an IZ policy that maximizes affordable housing production. The choice of where to apply IZ should be left to each municipality because market conditions and housing needs vary so greatly. When the province passed the original regulations for the IZ legislation, a coalition of municipalities fought for this local autonomy and won because it was widely recognized as the most sensible approach.

Second, the legislation should maintain the current length of development approval periods to ensure enough time for adequate public consultations. This is necessary to make sure that the benefits to communities generated by charges paid by developers are addressing the true local impacts and needs. The cuts to the permitted length of development approval periods - by two months in the case of Official Plan amendments and by a month (120 to 90 days) for re-zoning applications - would make these proper community consultations extremely difficult.

I hope that these recommendations will be implemented in Bill 108 and the accompanying regulations. I will be paying attention to this legislative process and working with many neighbours, agencies, and community partners to engage actively in consultations around the regulations.