Toronto getting another 300 to 400 affordable homes in the next 10 years

Monday’s National Housing Day was met with the announcement of an additional 300 to 400 new affordable homes coming to Toronto.

Developer Castlepoint Numa Inc., in partnership with multi-service organization WoodGreen Community Services, plans to build affordable units across four developments over the next three to 10 years. The units will be priced at about 80% of the average market rent in Toronto without any direct government subsidy.

“This has been in the works for several years and started with agreements with the city on our waterfront sites that demonstrated meaningful, affordable-housing delivery without government subsidy can work on private-sector lands,” said Castlepoint Numa Vice-President of Planning and Development Elsa Fancello.

The undertaking will start small, with 10 to 15 affordable units planned for a 108-unit rental building at 72 Perth Avenue. The proposed project, which is still awaiting approval from City Council, is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Castlepoint Numa and its partners will retain ownership of all the upcoming developments, and WoodGreen will assist in the delivery and management of the affordable units.

Earlier this month, Toronto passed an Inclusionary Zoning policy, mandating that beginning in 2022, new residential projects with 100 or more units must set aside 5-10% for affordable rental and ownership. By 2030, that number will increase to 8-22%.

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In light of this, Fancello says she believes Castlepoint Numa’s partnership with WoodGreen will be “a catalyst for many other similar alliances between developers and providers of social and community services.” Castlepoint Numa prides itself on taking “a community first, values-based approach” to its projects, and as President Alfredo Romano explains, they hope these plans will give them a head start on the Inclusionary Zoning mandate.

“Castlepoint Numa and WoodGreen have jumped ahead of the curve of inclusionary zoning, with these new units committed before the legislation takes effect,” Romano said. “The private sector has to be fully engaged if we’re going to move the needle.”