Item - 2021.PH22.10

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1. Referred the item to the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat with the request to: 

 
a. engage stakeholders (including the public, private and not profit housing providers, community organizations and the development industry) in designing a model for a new affordable housing centralized access system which would leverage the City's current choice-based system for subsidized housing to allow applicants to search and apply for available affordable housing and allow housing providers to advertise and fill affordable units with eligible applicants through a randomized draw process.

 
b. report back to Planning and Housing Committee before the end of 2021 with:

 
1. a recommended concept design of the new access model including allocation methodology and resource requirements to develop and build the new system.

2. a recommended approach to consolidate and streamline the future administration of new affordable housing contracts and agreements including any related resource and staffing requirements to ensure effective program compliance and monitoring.  

2. Referred the following motion by Councillor Brad Bradford to the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat:

"City Council request the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, in consultation with all relevant City Divisions, to include in the new access system measures to: 

a. Report the number of units posted and occupied through the platform as part of the affordable housing performance targets outlined in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Implementation Plan;

b. Track the number of units added to the access system geographically by ward, and to include this data as part of the annual report on HousingTO 2020-2030, and as part of a housing data strategy for the City; 

c. Include other relevant key indicators from access system data in a public format, such as on the City’s Open Data portal; and

d. Enable access and integration of this data across City of Toronto divisions and agencies, with particular regard to utilizing this data to inform housing and homelessness policy decisions."

As outlined in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan, the City continues to develop and implement a range of program and policy initiatives to increase the supply of affordable housing in Toronto. The City currently considers affordable housing to be rental housing where the total monthly shelter cost is at or below average market rent determined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), as defined in the Official Plan and Municipal Housing Facility By-law

Affordable housing is developed and operated by private and non-profit housing providers under various agreements with the City that secure and govern affordability. In addition to the City's social housing stock, there are over 8,000 affordable units currently under agreement with the City. This number is expected to rise substantially over the next ten years as the City works to meet its target in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan to approve 40,000 new affordable rental homes. Ensuring these units are filled by eligible households is critical to optimizing Toronto's limited affordable rental supply.

The Housing Secretariat creates partnerships with housing providers to increase the supply of affordable housing through programs such as Open Door and Housing Now, where the City offers land, capital funding and other municipal incentives (e.g., property tax exemptions and waiving of planning application fees and development charges). Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) is responsible for the ongoing administration of these units, providing oversight to ensure contractual compliance of rent levels and that units are being filled by households that meet eligibility and income requirements.

In addition, City Planning oversees units created or secured through Official Plan policies, including rental replacement and Section 37 policies, which have different administrative requirements and compliance remedies than those developed through affordable housing programs led by the Housing Secretariat. Some affordable units secured through Section 37 also receive Open Door incentives, and as such, are administered by SSHA.

As the City's delivery of affordable housing is expanding across a range of housing initiatives, this report recommends the creation of a centralized access system to streamline the process of advertising and filling future affordable units in a fair and transparent way. The proposed system will leverage the City's existing choice based access system for subsidized housing, with the goal of creating a single entry point for applicants to navigate a range of affordable and deeply affordable housing options that suit their needs.

This report is seeking Council approval to execute an Implementation Plan (Attachment A), involving the design of a new affordable housing access system that integrates a client portal for the public to search and apply for available units, and a vacancy management system for housing providers to post vacancies and review applications. System design will be informed through a range of community and stakeholder consultation, with the goal of ensuring that access to the City's affordable housing units is transparent, fair and accessible.

Additionally, this report provides an overview of the current affordable housing access and allocation system, as well as cross-divisional efforts underway to streamline administration and improve City oversight. This responds to City Council's request at its meeting on October 27, 2020 (item PH17.3), that the Housing Secretariat, SSHA and City Planning report back with an implementation plan that establishes transparent access plans for new affordable housing, including rental replacement units, and a process to ensure compliance with access plan requirements.

All new housing projects under SSHA administration are already required to complete and submit an Access Plan for City review and approval. Access Plans guide and document how housing providers are advertising available units and selecting tenants, in support of a transparent selection process. City Planning is working to strengthen oversight of affordable units and align access requirements with SSHA where possible, until a centralized access system is in place. As part of these efforts, City Planning has been working with rental replacement owners to develop housing access plans for all units that are not occupied by returning tenants.

At this meeting, City Council also requested that staff review compliance of existing agreements that secure rental replacement units to ensure that owners are advertising and filling units on a fair and open basis. City Planning will fulfill this request in Q3 2021, through a historical review of previous rental replacement agreements to ensure compliance.