City costs add up on our affordable housing project - is this FAIR?
I read with interest a recent development industry advertisement that identified government charges as the "elephant in the room" when it comes to housing affordability. I wondered what are we paying the City at our project The LOOP?
Turns out we are paying a lot! This is a former TTC derelict site that we already paid the City millions of dollars to buy in the first place. Trillium Housing Non-Profit is commited to build entry level housing and provide housing affordability by financing some of the families with Trillium Mortgages (in fact we financed more than half the buyers). The chart above shows that we paid the City (and school board) another $2.9 million in DC's, charges and fees.
This is a site where the City asked for affordable housing to be delivered!
To be fair, I want to point out that the City provided Loans to our project/home buyers that will be used to supplement the Trillium Housing financing for our Trillium Mortgages. The City provided less than 1/3 in Loans versus what we have paid the City overall. And the $2.9 million in fees and charges does not include the thousands of dollars we spent on lawyer fees to manage hundreds of pages of paperwork from the City for their funding and delivering the City support free-of-charge!
Of course, we want to make our fair contribution to the many City services and capital projects that these City Charges and Fees pay for. But the key issue here is FAIRNESS. Every one of our 62 entry-level 2 and 3 bedroom homes had to pay Development Charges - $25,000 a door! What is unfair is that the ultra-luxury condo's selling in the City often priced at well over $1 million a unit (and even on surplus City land) pay the same $25,000 a door DC fee!
If you looked at DC's (and all the other "set $$$ fees" charged by the City) as a percentage of the price of the home, then low income families who can only afford entry level homes are subsidizing the rich. These are certainly the most REGRESSIVE taxes in Canada.
Trillium Housing has called on governments for years to raise the same amount of revenue for services and facilities but use a Progressive Rate system. So high-end, luxury housing pays the same entry-level housing as a percentage of home price. FAIR.
The simplest solution is a set rate designed to raise the same revenue. To demonstrate, instead of charging our families at The LOOP $25,000 a door, charge 3% - which with an average unit price of about $450,000 would raise $13,500. That would be made up by charging the $1.3 million condo the same rate - 3% - or $39,000. Raising roughly the same amount of revenue.
This would be FAIR.
A better system would see the % rate increase as prices increase.
See more of our innovative, cost-effective policy ideas (how about ZERO charges and fees for non-profit housing providers who are doing the housing affordability work!) at our website www.trilliumhousing.ca
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Directors Circle Harvey Kalles Real Estate.
5 年The money wasted by the school board trustees is beyond ridiculous
Broker of Record at Commercial Focus Realty Inc., Brokerage
5 年Send this to the Mayor - he and his big mouth will get right on it...? The other thing is the $1.5MM in development charges is supposed to go into the community to assist with infrastructure, schools, utility upgrades as development puts more strain on those services etc.....? but where is that money really going???? City is already talking about increasing fees to pay for things it should have been building already from the fund they have collected..... what a joke... As for affordable housing in general, first we have to define what that is before you build it.? Creating affordable housing in Toronto is like changing an ant into an elephant.? Toronto is unique and has issues unique to it.? All politicians have meddled in the market and put in controls which in the long run make the issue worse.? The fact of the matter is there will be certain areas that will be exclusive as a result of price.? That is just reality.?
Living Life as it is given each Day!
5 年The only solution to the item of affordable housing is to elect people, such as Mayors, Councilors and Development Board citizens who want more affordable housing.? It should be quite clear that the municipalities like to talk and even pander to affordable housing initiatives, however at the end of the day, they want nothing to do with it.? They run it out of the municipalities or make it cost prohibitive.
Chemical process development expert. Antidote to marketing #hopium . Tireless advocate for a fossil fuel-free future.
5 年There is no exemption from these fees for a not-for-profit, truly affordable housing project, and that's terrible and stupid.? But worse still, the for-profit projects jammed down the throats of both the City and the residents of the city by the OMB/LPAT aren't paying their fair share of the COSTS of their development to the taxpaying residents here EITHER. Take your "school board levy" - the TDSB is not allowed to collect an educational development charge in our district, Willowdale, because there is spare school capacity in Scarborough- some 10 km away.? The TCDSB IS permitted to collect an EDC, but it must only be used for land- it cannot be used to build new schools or renovate existing ones to provide more capacity.? Willowdale has seen 20,000 units built in the past decade or so, and is already beyond the City's population targets for the year 2041 (we hit that target in 2017...) - but not one single NEW SCHOOL has been built for the kids living here.? One TCDSB school has been re-built on a new site, and a TDSB school was also re-built with a 3rd floor added at the last moment.? Who paid?? Not the developers who profited- WE residents did. Ford's Bill 108 makes all this WORSE.
Geomatics/Geospatial Professional
5 年Thank you for sharing this info.?