Housing now or housing never? Toronto mayoral candidates pitch plans to address crisis

Toronto's housing crisis gained more prominence in the mayoral byelection race this week, with voters getting a taste of candidates' plans to deal with the city's growing affordability crunch.

Both Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford made announcements aimed at addressing sky-rocketing home and rental prices in the city. And a provincial policy aimed at spurring home construction became a topic of debate as well.

The pace of the announcements continued to pick up in the fourth week of the campaign as several candidates touted high-profile endorsements and even more released new policy.

Here's a glimpse of where things stand.

Olivia Chow unveiled the first plank of her policy platform, focusing on protections for renters. She's promising to create a $100-million fund to help transfer affordable rental apartment buildings to not-for-profits providers. She is also pledging to double the city's rent bank and increase the reach of a city eviction protection program.

Chow said additional pieces of her housing plan will address issues with zoning, affordable housing and housing supply. She says she'd pay for it by increasing Toronto's vacant home tax by two points to three per cent.

Brad Bradford, who is a former city planner, also announced his own platform plank to get housing built. If elected, Bradford said he would increase supply by delivering "missing middle" projects while also unlocking government-owned lands for development. He also said he would streamline the approvals process at city hall to speed up project approvals.

Bradford had some critical things to say about the city's plan to build affordable housing, dubbed Housing Now. With the pace of the program, he quipped, the program might as well be called "Housing Never".

The program was first launched in 2019 and construction has yet to begin on any of its projects. A handful of projects that are set to move forward this year are in danger of stalling because of a Ford government policy. 

Candidates Ana Bailão, Mitzie Hunter and Mark Saunders said their housing policies are on the way. 

Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto, said he'd like to see the candidates explore the solutions with some candor. An honest discussion about land-use, accessing public lands and creating partnerships to accelerate construction is needed, he said.

"I want to see a frank conversation about what intensification looks like and how we're going to pay for the inclusive, affordable types of housing that get integrated into developments," he said.

As of Friday, the race now has 59 candidates, with Rupica Singh Waraich become the first to withdraw.

The deadline to drop out of the race and not have one's name appear on the ballot is May 12.