Olivia Chow welcomes housing creation funds, but says Torontonians need more federal cash to flow

There was no holiday cheer for Toronto in the restrained fall fiscal update delivered Tuesday by federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters at city hall, after the release of the economic statement, that she welcomes housing creation funds but that Torontonians, in the grips of a dire housing crisis, need more federal cash to flow now.

“There’s a plan there, it’s promising — but the people need more, faster,” Chow said, calling federal investments unambitious even as homeless shelters are packed, winter cold is coming and a refugee claimant recently died in a tent in Mississauga.

 

 

Toronto has been going cap in hand to Ottawa seeking funding for Chow’s ambitious $36-billion housing plan and to meet the rapidly rising shelter needs of refugees.

 

The new funding includes $15 billion in low-interest loans starting in 2025, an expansion of an existing program to support the construction of rental homes, and $1 billion for non-profit, co-op and public housing initiatives that will “build more than 7,000 new homes by 2028.”

But none of it is specifically earmarked for Toronto, which aims to build 65,000 new rental homes over the next seven years amid a budget crisis that has the city facing a projected $1.5 billion shortfall for 2024.

Chow said the money to build rentals, non-profits and co-ops won’t flow until 2025 but Toronto urgently needs the expected 700 units its share could create.

Co-op project proponents alone have 600 units ready to go once funding is secured, the mayor added, while Indigenous housing providers are also eager to build. A federal plan to spur housing creation on

 

 

This article was reported by The Star