Historic Cabbagetown rowhouses slated for affordable housing still in limbo

A block of historic row houses in Cabbagetown is shaping up as a battleground between housing advocates and heritage watchdogs.

The six derelict homes are slated to be redeveloped as low-income housing by the owner, Toronto Community Housing (TCH). But those renovations have been stalled for years, at least in part because of their heritage status, which means TCH has to pass many and often expensive city hurdles before work can begin.

But advocacy group HousingNowTO's technical lead Mark Richardson says this project is the latest example of what could have been a new affordable housing development being lost to heritage concerns. 

"Tearing down this handful of old buildings and building a new modern, accessible rooming house building on that Wellesley Street site would be a less costly and more efficient way to house the homeless," he said in an email to CBC Toronto.

But Diane Chin, the chair of Architectural Conservancy Ontario, argues it's unwise to raze the city's oldest properties despite the urgent need for affordable housing in Toronto.

"The ACO's position is exactly the opposite," she said.

"Retrofitting existing buildings, firstly, is better for the environment. It's also better economically because it produces more jobs and building new uses a lot of materials that are produced offshore and uses a lot less labour, significantly less."

The properties, located on 265 to 275 Wellesley St. E, were run as rooming houses for decades until 2018, when TCH listed them among 623 properties the agency decided to offload to non-profit housing operators. 

Dixon Hall — a non-profit agency that provides housing and support services throughout the city's east downtown core — was top bidder for the Wellesley Street lot. But the organization says it can't move forward until several issues are overcome.

"We are in discussions with the City of Toronto regarding funding and repair of these units in order to make these units liveable again," Faisal Ikram, the organization's communications director told CBC Toronto in an email. "Since these homes are designated as heritage properties ... an extensive process exists for funding and permitting."

TCH said in a statement to CBC Toronto that the properties won't be transferred to Dixon Hall until the renovation work is done, and until funding for the work is arranged, it's difficult to say when that work will start.

Richardson said his group believes some of that red tape — and expense, thanks to specialized materials and tradeswork — could be avoided if the properties were not protected by a heritage designation.

"At what price-point does the city's default heritage-retention-at-all costs policy in Cabbagetown begin to conflict and obstruct our city council's key priority of delivering thousands of units of new supportive and rent-geared-to-income housing by 2030?" he said.

"These heritage row houses on Wellesley Street E. are 800 metres and a 10-minute walk from dozens of people living in tents this winter in Allan Gardens park. Our volunteers would suggest that maybe the heritage retention should not be the city's most important priority on this specific site."