Population and Housing

[danbrotherston]

It looks like a nice project, but it is not particularly high density. Project Tiny Hope

Hopefully the concept could be used with higher density in a more urban environment. Even stacked townhouses would be significantly higher density, or something like a three-storey walk-up.

Indeed...there's definitely improvements to be made. I wonder how much of the smaller scale is driven by the ease of construction and especially incremental construction.

FWIW I'm a little confused here though...what makes them "tiny homes"...a two storey, 3 bedroom home with full kitchen, bathroom, living room, and laundry is .... well...just a house. Unless we're planning on relabelling every pre-sprawl 800 sqft family home a "tiny home".

[nms]

Speaking of stacked townhouses, Steeves & Rozema is advertising their recently renovated stacked townhouses within their Waterloo Heights community at 170 Erb St W.

Offering spacious renovated 2 and 3-bedroom townhome-style suites with 1.5 baths and new broadloom, Waterloo Heights is an Adult Lifestyle building located just steps away from Waterloo Park and the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.  These spacious suites come with three appliances including a fridge, stove and dishwasher.  A quiet building catering primarily to seniors, property amenities include laundry facilities, secure entry, private patios and heat, water and parking are included.  The building also offers residents the option of a "Full Service" plan ranging from $3,450 - $4,190 per month.  Retirement Services are also available at this facility.

The history of this building is interesting.  It was built a general population rental in the 1970s or 1980s with a floor of apartments on the ground floor, two floors of stacked townhouses above that (ie one unit included space on floor 2 and floor 3). The fourth floor includes one entire private suite for the building owner.  All the floors above that included regular apartments.  Later, when the Province made some changes to seniors housing, the apartment building was bought and slowly converted to seniors housing one unit at a time.  To my knowledge the townhouses and the entire floor suite still exists.

[Acitta]

There are a lot of terrible landlords out there, as shown in the latest episode of Marketplace.

Canada’s rental crisis: The search for an affordable home

[jeffster]

There are a lot of terrible landlords out there, as shown in the latest episode of Marketplace.

Canada’s rental crisis: The search for an affordable home

Link not working....

I think this is the one: CBC Marketplace - Affordable housing

[Acitta]

There are a lot of terrible landlords out there, as shown in the latest episode of Marketplace.

Canada’s rental crisis: The search for an affordable home

Link not working....

I think this is the one: CBC Marketplace - Affordable housing

Thanks, I fixed it.

[Acitta]

The global money pool that soaked Canada’s hope of affordable housing

[Acitta]

This article is specifically about condo developments in Toronto, but it concerns the problem of developers building housing for a narrow segment of the population while destroying existing working class communities.

Combatting the ruinous greed of the developers 
Housing must be treated as a vital social need and a human right

[Acitta]

Municipalities feel impacts of Ford government's housing law, worry over little audit progress
 
In Waterloo, council voted to delay for at least one year a $68-million reconstruction project for infrastructure to support 800 new homes because of uncertainty over how the city will pay for it.

"We certainly share the same goal as the province, that we want to see additional housing units being constructed, but we need to know how we can afford to pay for that," Coun. Diane Freeman said in an interview.

"I can't ask the current taxpayers, the current tax base in Waterloo, to front the capital for a development that I don't know if we're going to be able to recoup development charges on."

[bravado]

That's weird, they've been "asking" new taxpayers to cover the financial sins of current taxpayers for decades - weird how it doesn't flow the other way.

[ac3r]

This article is specifically about condo developments in Toronto, but it concerns the problem of developers building housing for a narrow segment of the population while destroying existing working class communities.

Combatting the ruinous greed of the developers 
Housing must be treated as a vital social need and a human right

I shared a good University of Waterloo School of Architecture lecture in another thread that discusses the need for affordable housing: https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...#pid107734

[ac3r]

68 million? That's not much. I know of a certain police force we could reduce the budget for in order to pay for housing.

[nms]

In a piece of news that likely surprises no one, "Ontario has over a million homes in the pipeline, but needs developers to put shovels in the ground: report" (CBC)

Toronto's chief planner Gregg Lintern said the city approved an average of over 29,700 residential units a year from 2017 to 2021. During that same period, only around 16,000 units were built annually.

The Hamiltion Spectator wrote an article to cover the topic, "1.5-million new Ontario homes already within reach: planners’ study".

The Spectator article quoted a home-builder:

Collins-Williams said he believes the province’s “decisive actions” on land supply and legislative planning changes will help get more housing built faster.

But he added the industry still faces a “perfect storm” of factors — including inflation, labour shortages and ongoing “politics around housing” — that are working against getting shovels in the ground.

The report was released by the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario, but I can not find any reference to them elsewhere online, nor a copy of the report. I would be interested to see if the report chose Waterloo Region as one of the 15 municipalities studied and also whether the approved, yet unbuilt, units cover the full range of housing needs, or more narrower bands of the market (eg single-bedroom units).  If the former, getting these units build would be a good thing.  If the latter, it could simply perpetuate the problem of not creating housing to match the full range needed in Canada (eg multi-bedroom units regardless of building type that are suitable for families; or affordable units; or rental units)

[danbrotherston]

In a piece of news that likely surprises no one, "Ontario has over a million homes in the pipeline, but needs developers to put shovels in the ground: report" (CBC)

Toronto's chief planner Gregg Lintern said the city approved an average of over 29,700 residential units a year from 2017 to 2021. During that same period, only around 16,000 units were built annually.

The Hamiltion Spectator wrote an article to cover the topic, "1.5-million new Ontario homes already within reach: planners’ study".

The Spectator article quoted a home-builder:

Collins-Williams said he believes the province’s “decisive actions” on land supply and legislative planning changes will help get more housing built faster.

But he added the industry still faces a “perfect storm” of factors — including inflation, labour shortages and ongoing “politics around housing” — that are working against getting shovels in the ground.

The report was released by the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario, but I can not find any reference to them elsewhere online, nor a copy of the report. I would be interested to see if the report chose Waterloo Region as one of the 15 municipalities studied and also whether the approved, yet unbuilt, units cover the full range of housing needs, or more narrower bands of the market (eg single-bedroom units).  If the former, getting these units build would be a good thing.  If the latter, it could simply perpetuate the problem of not creating housing to match the full range needed in Canada (eg multi-bedroom units regardless of building type that are suitable for families; or affordable units; or rental units)

I find this bizarre and strange. I can find references to them as early as 2003, but despite apparently existing at least a decade they have no webpage I can find and have not published any of their reports online.

I'd say that any major industry group in 2023 that has no web page or public information is just hyper-sketch.

It makes it impossible to evaluate the credibility or potential biases present in such a report...I find it very frustrating that newspapers publish this story without that kind of background information.

Makes me wonder if I could just start writing reports and title them "Ontario Transportation Expert Group's Report on Transportation" and then just write whatever I want and have newspapers across the country just publish it at face value as an authoritative source.

[ac3r]

Their website is: https://rpco.ca/

And most members are made up of planning related members belonging to each city listed on said website.

[ZEBuilder]

In a piece of news that likely surprises no one, "Ontario has over a million homes in the pipeline, but needs developers to put shovels in the ground: report" (CBC)

Toronto's chief planner Gregg Lintern said the city approved an average of over 29,700 residential units a year from 2017 to 2021. During that same period, only around 16,000 units were built annually.

The Hamiltion Spectator wrote an article to cover the topic, "1.5-million new Ontario homes already within reach: planners’ study".

The Spectator article quoted a home-builder:

Collins-Williams said he believes the province’s “decisive actions” on land supply and legislative planning changes will help get more housing built faster.

But he added the industry still faces a “perfect storm” of factors — including inflation, labour shortages and ongoing “politics around housing” — that are working against getting shovels in the ground.

The report was released by the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario, but I can not find any reference to them elsewhere online, nor a copy of the report. I would be interested to see if the report chose Waterloo Region as one of the 15 municipalities studied and also whether the approved, yet unbuilt, units cover the full range of housing needs, or more narrower bands of the market (eg single-bedroom units).  If the former, getting these units build would be a good thing.  If the latter, it could simply perpetuate the problem of not creating housing to match the full range needed in Canada (eg multi-bedroom units regardless of building type that are suitable for families; or affordable units; or rental units)

Looking at approved developments just for Kitchener that yet to have shovels in the ground,

Tek tower 2
Tek tower 3
Q condos
Vierra Village (4 towers at Courtland and Block Line)
1668 King St (2 towers at the old schwaben club)
1253 King St (2 towers at King and Sheldon)
The remaining 3 buildings at station park
Subdivision at Trussler and Bleams (A 
couple thousand units)
Ottawa and Pattandon
King and Borden (10 floors)

So easily 5 thousand or more units approved, under construction we have a bunch more,

Drewlo
Tek tower,
900 King St W
387 King St E
Elevate condo's (4 buildings)
595 Strasburg
599 Strasburg 
Subdivision at Ottawa and Trussler
Subdivision at Bleams and Fischer hallman 

So probably another thousand or more units U/C.

Then looking at proposed but yet to be approved,
Park and Victoria (at OLT)
22 Weber St W (at OLT)
Metz (12 buildings)
Mill and Ottawa (5 buildings)
Lower Kitchener
20 Ottawa St N
10 duke St W
130 Victoria St South 
Fischer hallman and bleams (townhomes and 4 apartment buildings)
Townhomes at 525 Erinbrook Dr
4 buildings at Huron and Strasburg (10, 2x13, 17)

So probably another 5k+ that are proposed and I'm probably missing a bunch, but just by looking at these buildings that are U/C and approved alot of them are just 1/2 bedroom condos or apartments with the odd 3 bedroom unit and the subdivisions are just more SFH, so we at least have some level of variety but the options are either suburban SFH or downtown highrise units. We still have 5 times as many units approved as are U/C so we definitely have a major problem with getting shovels in the ground. Just like every other major city based on those articles.