Waterfront condo building to include affordable rentals for starving artists
Groundbreaking project in the new Bayside neighbourhood will include 80 units to be managed by Artscape, which has a long waiting list.
Image Source
The projectās $26 million capital cost is being covered by an expected $12 million contribution from the federal-provincial Investment in Affordable Housing program and $7 million from the cityās development charges reserve fund. Artscape is expected to take out a mortgage for the remaining $7 million and recoup the cost through rent.
The city is covering an additional $7.66 million in indirect contributions, including land, and relief from property taxes and development charges.
Under the federal-provincial housing program, rents must be set at 80 per cent of average market rent or $828 for a one-bedroom, $980 for a two-bedroom and $1,190 for a three-bedroom, at current costs. At these rents, families, couples and singles with an annual household income between $40,000 and $57,000 would be eligible to rent a unit. Rents and incomes will be adjusted for expected occupancy in 2018-19, according to a staff report.
Mayor Rob Ford said last fall that putting affordable housing on the waterfront was a waste of valuable real estate. However, he was reminded that the cityās Central Waterfront Secondary Plan calls for 20 per cent of all new housing in the area to be affordable.
Read moreĀ http://www.thestar.com/
Liberty Village begins its inevitable slide into poop-covered squalor
The latest salvo in Liberty Villageās ongoing war on dog poop was fired in theĀ Parkdale VillagerĀ over the weekend. InĀ an articleĀ about the problem, local anti-poop activistĀ Geoff WebbĀ is quoted saying that his neighbourhoodāsĀ infamous feces issuesĀ are only getting worse, in part because the entire community relies on one small park for most of its dog-walking needs. Even more telling is Ward 19 councillorĀ Mike Laytonās quote in the same article: āNo one contemplated the number of dogs that would be in the area,ā Layton said. āI often joke that thereās five dogs for every half a child per floor in Liberty Village.ā
Layton may be joking, but heās not wrong to suggest that Liberty Villageās poop problem stems from questionable city planning. Railroad tracks isolate the neighbourhood from the rest of downtown, and an abundance of new condo high-rises puts extra stress on the areaās amenities. And those are onlyĀ todayāsproblems. The fact that many of Torontoās new condo buildings are probably only 25 or 30 years away fromĀ major capital-repairs crisesĀ means things in places like Liberty Village could get worse over time, not better. In other words, the poop may be trying to tell us something.
http://www.torontolife.com/
