How we got here - visualizing the devolution of social housing in Toronto

Milestones In The Devolution Of Social Housing Development In Toronto

Jean Chrétien’s Liberals cut Federal funding to build new social housing developments in Ontario (1995). Responsibility for maintaining existing social housing stock is now the responsibility of the Ontario Provincial government

Mike Harris’ Ontario Progress-Conservatives, through the Social Housing Reform Act (2000), further downloads social housing responsibility to the City of Toronto.

Without major financial commitments to maintain and grow it’s social housing supply, Toronto looks to private real estate developers to help maintain and repair its aging housing supply (2005).

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government partially re-enters the housing market by launching the National Housing Strategy (2016), which will invest $40 billion to spur affordable housign developments across Canada.

Source: Suttor,Greg.2016.StillRenovating:aHistoryofCanadianSocialHousingPolicy.Montreal,(QuebecProvince:McGill-Queen’sUniversityPress). Smetaninetal.,“TorontoHousingMarketAnalysis:FromInsighttoAction.”

This graph communicates the successive “downgrading” of Canadian federal and provincial involvement in social housing development. With the final pullout of Mike Harris’ Progressive Conservatives from building and operating social housing under the “Common Sense Revolution,” social housing creation grinds to a halt in Ontario. The lasting impacts of this action can be observed in rising social housing demand in Toronto, as many Torontonias struggle to fulfill their core housing needs.

Understanding the development context of Toronto’s Chinatown

The College

This map exposed the ongoing gentrification and their subsequent residential projects in the maps are marketing images published by the lack of unaffordable housing in the new