Housing advocate organization ACORN is pushing Toronto to redefine what is calls affordable rentals. (ACORN Canada)
July 19th, 2018
The Star Editorial Board
What people can afford to pay for a home has nothing to do with the price of housing and everything to do with their income. When it comes to buying a house that’s something mortgage lenders know well. But when it comes to the rental housing market that’s a concept that’s harder to find.
And that’s how Toronto wound up with an affordable housing program that doesn’t actually produce much affordable rental housing. Instead, it results in housing that’s pegged to the city’s average market rents.
Certainly, that’s not bad housing and it fills a need. But it does not fill the needs of Toronto’s low-income tenants as the city is so keen to suggest it does.