Metrolinx sells public land to developer for $64.5M with no conditions for affordable housing

Ontario's regional transit agency sold a piece of prime public land next to the Port Credit transit hub to a private condo developer last month without insisting that the buyer provide affordable housing — a move that housing advocates and local politicians are criticizing as "a missed opportunity."

The site, a parking lot about three quarters of a hectare, was sold by Metrolinx to Edenshaw Queen Developments Ltd. for $64.5 million. The lot is on Queen Street next to the Port Credit GO station and the Hurontario light rail transit station, which is still under construction. It's at the heart of an ambitious transit hub for GO trains, the LRT and Mississauga buses. 

Mississauga Coun. Stephen Dasko, who represents the neighbourhood, called the decision not to insist on an affordable housing component as a condition of the sale "a missed opportunity" for the city.

"It was owned by the public...and I think some conditions could have been put to it to ensure that we had some things done, like affordable housing."

The average price of a home in Mississauga last May was $1.06 million, according to the online real estate brokerage Zoocasa. That's up 34 per cent compared to May 2020.

A 2016 report on affordable housing to Mississauga councillors indicates low income families there can afford to spend no more than $221,147 on a home, or rent one for no more than $1,387 a month.

Nationally, according to a July 2021 report by real estate brokerage RE/MAX, Mississauga has the fourth worst house-price-to-income ratio in Canada, behind only Victoria, Toronto and Vancouver.

"Housing affordability is an issue for almost 1 in 3 Mississauga households, including 1 in 8 who are in deep need (i.e. spending 50% or more)," the city staff report states, "and 1 in 12 who are in severe need (i.e. spending 70% or more)."

Nabeela Irfan, a resident of Port Credit and a member of the Peel Region chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a group that advocates for lower income individuals and families, said an affordable component to the new development is much needed in the neighbourhood.

"We know that the GTA and the province at large is struggling with affordable housing. We know that's an issue," she told CBC Toronto.

"The likely scenario is existing homeowners will buy units [in the new development] as a second investment property, and then they'll rent it out at unaffordable prices to tenants who are unlikely to be able to afford these market prices," she said.

"And then they'll be scraping by, and then the cycle continues. It's a missed opportunity."

According to a recent analysis by Teranet, the province's online land registration provider, people who already own at least one property made up 25 per cent of home buyers last year, compared to 10 years ago when investors made up the smallest percentage.

Some jurisdictions in Ontario have adopted inclusionary zoning — a planning tool that municipalities use to force developers to include a certain number of affordable units in new builds, particularly those that are near public transit corridors. Toronto city council adopted inclusionary zoning late last year.