Deadlines loom to apply for Toronto affordable housing in lakeshore buildings

The number of people looking for affordable housing in Toronto continues to rise, but there are new opportunities to find places to live; you just need to meet some strict criteria set out by the city and win a lottery after you apply.

A new building on the east end of the lakeshore will have 100 new affordable rental units with rents between $1,400 to $1,900 per month for one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.

The deadline to apply for the building is 5 p.m. on Sept. 23.

“This is not social housing. This is not rent-geared-to-income. It’s not Toronto Community Housing. This is what the city calls its workforce housing or affordable rental band,” explained Mark Richardson with HousingNowTO.

These specific affordable housing units are aimed at people earning between $35,000 and $80,000 to $90,000 a year, depending on the number of people in your household.

“It’s for teachers and nurses, the kinds of people that keep the city running,” said Richardson. “In Toronto right now, to comfortably afford a two-bedroom rental apartment, your household income has to be $135,000 a year. That’s a very high bar. These units are trying to fill that middle gap.”

The process includes putting your name forward with an application called a submission of interest, and then names are selected randomly.

“If you get picked at random, then you go through the formal qualification process where they check your income levels, they check your household size to make sure the kinds of unit you’re applying for match the targets for this new apartment buildings,” explained Richardson.

“There’s way more than 100 people who need low-cost rental buildings, particularly in a neighbourhood like the waterfront, so the fairest way to distribute them is to do these housing lottery processes,” said Richardson.

The city approved a new zoning bylaw last year, making sure that developers provide some affordable housing, but has been criticized for not providing enough.

“The city’s role in that is we have oversight, so the developer creates the application process. We have oversight and work with the developer on applying the criteria to ensure that it’s fair,” explained Eric Holmes, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto.

Richardson said there are issues with the program that needs to be streamlined as many more projects are expected to come online in the next two to three years.

“[The problem is that] it is all kind of disconnected and siloed. We’re expecting thousands of these kinds of units to come online over the next few years.”

In Toronto, you must apply for each building that offers affordable housing.

There is another building close by in which applications are only being taken until Sept. 30. This building at 99 Lakeshore Boulevard East will contain 204 new affordable rental units with rents between $1,100 to $1,800 per month for one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.

The City of Toronto said, in the next six months, the Housing Secretariat anticipates there will be three other locations that will use a random draw process to fill affordable rental units.

Richardson tells CityNews more needs to be done to get the word out about these projects.

“Nobody is talking about this. City staff aren’t talking about it. The mayor is not talking about it. The deputy mayor for housing isn’t talking about it. The deadline for one of these lotteries is [Friday] night.”