City council faces hurdles to unlock $500M in federal housing cash

Beginning at a city hall meeting Wednesday, Toronto councilllors will scrutinize a to-do list from the federal housing minister with the goal of accessing more than half a billion in funding to build new homes.

Last month, federal housing minister Sean Fraser said that if Toronto wants its $500 million share of the Housing Accelerator Fund it needs to make a slew of changes to city building policy. Civil servants are expected to present council with a report with a plan to address Fraser's concerns.

On Tuesday, Mayor Olivia Chow said the item will a priority during the council session. She expects council will want to urgently move forward on staff recommendations to secure the cash.

"One of the votes that I'll be whipping very hard is the Housing Accelerator Fund because we need another $500 million to build housing like this," she said at a Scarborough housing announcement. 

Chow has downplayed any questions about the difficulty of complying with the federal requests. The staff recommendations have not yet been made public. 

Though the staff-recommended plan to comply with the federal requests have not yet been made public, Chow has downplayed questions about the difficulty of complying with those requests.

The mayor said work on the file was underway right up to the deadline to submit documents to council. So late, in fact, the report is expected to be walked onto the council floor during the multi-day session. 

"[Staff are] going to dot the i's and cross the t's and the report will come forward on Thursday for City Council to approve," she said.

Previously, Chow said the city was already moving forward on many items Fraser requested, including legalizing multiplexes citywide.

Fraser also asked for minimum height requirements and stronger density requirements near transit, a streamlined permitting process, and a reduction of parking minimums.

The federal fund is designed to push municipalities across the country to change planning rules and make it easier to build. Toronto could use the funding in a variety of ways including supporting its planning department, which has faced staffing shortages for years, and to bolster its housing plan, which aims to create 65,000 affordable homes over the next decade.

Coun. Brad Bradford says he believes council will want to push forward and access the funding. The city urgently needs more affordable housing and this is another program that can help achieve that goal, he said.

"We need to make sure that there's more housing that people can afford," said Bradford.

"More purpose built rental, and capitalizing on the infrastructure investments, whether that's new transit, or schools, or water and sewer pipes, making sure that we're delivering the housing where those infrastructure projects are being delivered."