HousingTO

 The City of Toronto released this Thursday (6) the Plan to Create Supportive Housing Opportunities report, which will be brought to the Planning and Housing Committee for consideration on February 12, 2020.

The Plan to Creative Supportive Housing Opportunities report identifies the current initiatives underway for 2020 and highlights a number of strategies that will be pursued to reach the target of creating 18,000 units of supportive housing over the next 10 years.

City staff have outlined a series of approaches that, if approved by City Council, would create 600 units of supportive housing this year.

The proposed multi-pronged approach includes layering supports that will enable people experiencing chronic homelessness to achieve housing stability in private market rental units through existing supports such as the Home for Good program. It also includes the renovation and conversion of existing housing units into supportive housing opportunities and innovative pilot projects such as conversion of shelter sites into supportive housing for long-term shelter stayers and use of modular housing. These opportunities will be further developed as part of the HousingTO implementation plan that will be brought to the Planning and Housing Committee for approval in June 2020.

The HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan, approved by City Council in December 2019, established a target of 40,000 new affordable rental homes approvals including 18,000 units of supportive housing over the next ten years. The HousingTO plan identified that achieving this supportive housing target is critical to addressing homelessness and the housing needs of vulnerable residents in the city.

MS