HOW TO SOLVE A HOUSING CRISIS

Toronto's unaffordable housing market is the result of decades of bad policy. These three solutions are our best bet for getting it under control

- DAVID OLIVE

There are promising solutions to the housing crisis, some of them outlined here.

But first a reminder of the urgency of the problem.

Approximately 85,000 Toronto households are on waiting lists for subsidized housing. For now, they are precariously housed - one rent or paycheque away from losing their shelter.

The average GTA home price, at $1,177,77 in this year's first quarter, is expected to jump by another 10 per cent by year end.

A decade ago, just nine per cent of Toronto residential properties were valued at $750,000 to $1.5 million-plus. By last year, that portion of housing out of reach for many prospective homebuyers had soared to 67 per cent.

High home prices have forced up rents. The asking rent for a Toronto two-bedroom apartment this month is $3,224, a 58 per cent increase in just three years.

Spiralling housing costs that have eclipsed growth in personal income constrains the GTA's economic growth. Shelter costs that gobble up more than 50 per cent of household income cut deeply into consumer spending, a blow to a retail economy yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solutions to the crisis are not limited to the measures proposed here of opening the door wider to skilled homebuilders from abroad, freeing up public land for affordable housing development, and spurring more construction of prefabricated housing.

The solutions also include everything from converting outdated shopping malls to mixed-used communities to readers of this article giving thought to a "secondary suite" in their house - the once common practice of renting a room to a teacher or nursing student.

(The latest federal budget provides financial incentives to those who remodel a portion of their home for rental.)

Canada already has considerable experience with the three solutions highlighted here. What's required simply is to adopt solutions with greater urgency.