Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says she’s committed to building more affordable housing faster after receiving a massive investment from the Ontario government for surpassing last year’s housing targets.
On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford announced a huge $114 million in funding to the city for exceeding its yearly HousingTO targets.
The money will be provided through the province’s Building Faster Fund to support future home building initiatives laid out in the 2020-2023 HousingTO Action Plan.
The building faster fund is a $1.2 billion dollar program in place to encourage Ontario municipalities to meet and surpass housing targets.
“The City of Toronto exceeded housing targets for 2023 set by the Government of Ontario by 51 per cent with a total of 31,656 housing starts that includes 30,516 new housing units, 794 conversions and 346 long-term care beds,” the city said in a Thursday press release.
Doug Ford shared the news via X on Thursday afternoon, saying he was proud to present Mayor Chow with the infrastructure funding.
City Councillor for Beaches-East York Brad Bradford says building more housing faster was a priority that he and Ford share.
According to the City’s website, the HousingTO 2020-2030 Housing Action Plan is focused on enabling market, non-market and mixed housing production.
Mayor Chow said she was proud to have exceeded the city’s target in 2023, and that she remains committed to getting housing in Toronto back on track by building more homes of all kinds.
“That includes our ambitious plan to build 65,000 rent-controlled homes on City land and speeding up the approval process for new housing developments. The Building Faster Fund will help Toronto build more housing and create great neighbourhoods for families to live in,” Chow concluded.
Ontarians responded to the news with mixed sentiment to the housing funding announcement.
“Amazing,” one X user wrote.
“You do know there is more to Ontario than Toronto, right Doug?,” another person said.
Meanwhile, some responded to the news with questions about what the mayor considers affordable housing.
“What exactly do you consider to be “affordable” housing, for a disabled senior citizen? My rent is over 1/2 of my monthly seniors income. I have been told I need to wait 10-15 years before I can get an ‘affordable’ 1-bedroom apartment,” one person said.
