City of Toronto commemorates National Housing Day

Today, Mayor John Tory proclaimed National Housing Day in Toronto. (Screengrab via Mayor John Tory/Youtube)

Today, Mayor John Tory proclaimed National Housing Day in Toronto. National Housing Day recognizes the vital work done by housing partners, including providers, across Canada to improve access to safe, adequate and affordable housing for everyone.

To mark the day, the City of Toronto is hosting the Toronto Housing Summit today and tomorrow. The two-day event is the first annual housing summit focused on identifying key issues and opportunities to improve housing affordability in Toronto.

The Summit brings together community and housing partners from the Indigenous, non-profit, health care, business and academic sectors to recognize and showcase their efforts and commitment to advancing affordable housing in Toronto. Topics of discussion will focus on partnerships and innovation to increase affordable housing supply and enhance the health and well-being of residents. The Summit also aims to highlight how interconnected the housing, health and justice systems are and how important it is to coordinate efforts across these sectors to meaningfully address the city’s housing challenges.

The Summit is a key long-term commitment by the City through its HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan. It aims to help drive innovative practices and promote partnership-based solutions that can help make way for more affordable and sustainable housing, with critical supports, in Toronto.

People can register for and learn more about the Toronto Housing Summit at Toronto.ca/HousingSummit.

Throughout the week, the City will also run a “More Homes for Toronto” social media campaign to build awareness of the City’s innovative housing programs, policies, and initiatives that are creating new homes to meet the needs of Toronto residents. The animated campaign demonstrates examples of potential housing challenges faced by people and the solutions that are ready to help. More information is available at Toronto.ca/HomeSweetHome.

The City is also preparing to release the first annual version of the Toronto Housing Data Book, which will provide a high-level overview of key indicators that measure the health of the housing system in Toronto. Understanding data from various sources is essential for policymakers, researchers, and the public to help identify solutions to make meaningful change across the housing continuum. The Data Book will be updated annually and will continue to grow in subsequent years to include more robust data that aligns with the City’s strategic goals. The Toronto Housing Data Book will be available on the City’s website.

The City continues to demonstrate unwavering support for and dedication toward advancing its 10-year HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan (“HousingTO Plan”). The plan aims to approve 40,000 new affordable rental homes with 18,000 supportive homes, including 1,000 modular homes, to improve housing outcomes for current and future residents of Toronto. Currently, more than 15,000 affordable rental homes are under development in the city.

To expedite the delivery of the HousingTO Plan, in September 2020, Toronto City Council approved the 24-Month COVID-19 Housing and Homelessness Recovery Response Plan to create 2,000 supportive homes and 1,000 portable housing benefits for people experiencing homelessness. Thanks to the support of other orders of government and its non-profit and Indigenous housing partners, the City is currently on track to exceed these targets and has secured funding to deliver more than 3,600 new affordable and supportive housing opportunities.

Earlier this year, Council requested that the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada support the City’s new 24-Month Plan Housing Recovery and Resilience Plan (2023 and 2024) to deliver 4,000 additional affordable rental and supportive housing opportunities by the end of 2024.

Delivery of the City’s HousingTO Plan is essential to improving the health of Toronto’s residents, environment, and economy and will require strong support from federal and provincial partners. Participation and commitment from the community, Indigenous, healthcare, business, and academic sectors are also critical.

More information about the plan is available on the City’s HousingTO Action Plan webpage.

View the proclamation on the City’s 2022 Proclamations webpage.

Quotes:

“National Housing Day is an opportunity for us to reflect on our collective action on building affordable housing and to recognize the many individuals and organizations that work tirelessly to deliver positive housing outcomes. Together, the City of Toronto with the federal and provincial governments, the private sector, and non-profit housing organizations, are always looking for innovative solutions to get more housing built as quickly as possible. I am determined to push forward with the aggressive targets set in the City’s HousingTO plan to ensure that all Toronto residents have access to safe, secure, affordable, and well-maintained housing in their neighbourhood of choice.”
– Mayor John Tory

“Access to affordable housing is vital for the prosperity and well-being of our communities. With the help of other orders of government, community partners, and our residents across the city, we have been able to make substantial progress towards meeting our affordable housing targets. Even though we are moving rapidly to build more affordable homes, there remains much to be done. We need to continue working collaboratively with our partners to solve this housing crisis together and make sure that no one is left behind.”
– Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie (Scarborough-Rouge Park)