Ontario may soon count student residences as homes to reach housing goal
CTV
The Ontario government is looking into counting student residences and retirement spaces to meet its 10-year target of building 1.5 million homes.
The Ontario government is looking into counting student residences and retirement spaces to meet its 10-year target of building 1.5 million homes.
The government confirmed this intention in a letter sent to the City of Mississauga at the end of March in response to a request to change the way housing is counted municipally.
In the letter, Housing Minister Paul Calandra said his office is exploring whether to track “other institutional types of housing” as it works towards its housing goal.
This includes student residences and retirement homes.
“We will continue to explore data sources for tracking the numbers of other institutional types of housing such as student residences and retirement homes for future program years and commit to engaging municipalities on the same,” Calandra wrote.
The province has been using housing starts to calculate its progress on the 2021 campaign promise made by the Progressive Conservatives to build 1.5 million homes.
A housing start is defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as “the beginning of construction work on abuilding where the dwelling unit will be located.”
