A crisis of our own design

Canadians are grappling with a housing crisis that is both more severe and more persistent than that of any other G7 country.

An entire generation has been effectively locked out of home ownership, once seen as a de-facto right of the middle class.?

Like everything around us, the cost of housing is driven by supply and demand. For decades Canada has seen steady increases in demand for housing as our population continues to grow at nearly double the rate of other G7 countries.

In order to keep prices stable, rapidly expanding housing demand needs to be met with rapidly expanding supply. The Canadian housing market has not delivered. Housing starts in 2023 were about 240,000 units. That's 28,000 fewer units than we delivered 50 years ago, in 1973, when our population was 40% lower than what it is today.

Supply constraints are deeply ingrained in our political processes. Restrictive zoning, onerous and rigid building codes, and rent controls, all contribute to the problem. Exacerbated by snail-paced approvals and permitting timelines that drain projects of viability and profitability.

In Toronto, a significant factor contributing to supply constraints, often overlooked by those not familiar with the real estate industry, is our system of community consultation facilitated by the Committee of Adjustments (CofA).

The purpose of the CofA is to review applications for minor variances to the provisions of the zoning bylaw for proposed developments. In theory the CofA should widen the types of structures that we allow to be built in Toronto by allowing for appropriate exceptions to a strict application of our very complex and limiting zoning bylaws.

In practice, the CofA effectively subjects every proposed housing development to a public trial, where neighbours are not only able to submit letters but also to petition and speak at hearings. This process enables grandstanding and incentivizes the gatekeeping of neighbourhoods against new development.

Those unfamiliar with this process should listen to an amazing new podcast,?Anatomy of a Committee of Adjustments Hearing, by Matt and Chris Spoke . This episode of their podcast Hogtown, covers the recent CofA hearing for a proposed 10 unit low-rise apartment building in my Toronto neighbourhood of Seaton Village.

The proposed project is located at 91 Barton Avenue, and aims to fulfill the need for what housing advocates call the "missing-middle"; the absence of low to mid-rise apartment complexes in our city centers. Toronto is unique for cities of its scale in having such a bifurcation of housing between high-rise pockets like City Place, and exclusively single family dwellings, with little in between.

The first speaker at the CofA hearing for 91 Barton, a neighbour in opposition to the project, begins by saying how he supports development and densification in principle. This is a familiar starting point that you will hear over and over from community members speaking in opposition to new housing. At my own CofA hearing I saw much of the same as neighbour after neighbour expressed, without self-awareness, the NIMBY mantra, "I love development, just not this development. Couldn't this go somewhere else?"

The speaker goes on to claim, amazingly, that the proposed minor variance for an additional 140 cm of height to accommodate a third storey (something many single family homes have in Seaton Village) would cast shadows so severe that they would place local residents at risk for a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder.... Yes, you read that correctly, he actually said that.

The speaker then goes on to ask the committee to consider the fact that this 10 unit, 3 storey development, would be only one block away from an elementary school... The horror!

The next opposition speaker says the quiet part out loud: that they have worked hard to be able to afford a single family home in a neighbourhood like Seaton Village, and they shouldn't have to live near an apartment building - i.e. nothing that might affect my resale value please!

The hearing for 91 Barton is a perfect microcosm for the broader NIMBYism that has held back the densification of Toronto neighbourhoods for decades.?

The irony is that those that oppose densification in the name of preserving neighbourhood character actually contribute to the decline of those very neighbourhoods. Chris and Matt point out that as young families are priced out of single family homes in Toronto, census data actually shows declining populations in many of our older and most colourful neighbourhoods, including Seaton Village and the neighbouring Annex.

The added irony is that our most desirable neighbourhoods were developed during a period of far looser zoning restrictions, and far less community consultation. Most of what makes these neighbourhoods unique could not be built today under current laws and processes.

We have rendered out of existence the pathways to building the neighbourhoods that we love.

As I listen to resident after resident oppose a modest densification project, I get the drained feeling that the Spoke brothers describe as emblematic of this process. They lament that we are in the middle of a generational housing crisis and yet this is our process?

Regrettably, 91 Barton did not gain approval from the CofA and will not be moving ahead as planned. A vacant single family home remains in its place.

After listening to Anatomy of a Committee of Adjustments Hearing, you will understand why our housing crisis will not be solved anytime soon. And you could even be forgiven for wondering how anything ever gets built in Canada.?