ADDING MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING THROUGH NEW BUILDS & INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Affordable housing continues to top headlines as the cost of rental housing in Toronto is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many people living on low to moderate incomes. As one of the largest non-municipal providers of affordable housing in the city of Toronto, WoodGreen has a longstanding history of both building new and managing existing affordable housing sites across the city.

Housing is also a strong social determinant of health, and we know that when our clients have a safe place to live they are better positioned to tackle other challenges they are facing. For these reasons housing remains a huge priority for us and we have set the ambitious target of adding 2,000 new units over the next 10 years, bringing our total stock to 3,000.

Over the last year, we have tested a series of innovative approaches to meet this goal that include – acquiring government-owned land to develop, forging new, strong partnerships with the private sector to develop our own land, and integrating with other agencies like Accommodation, Information and Support (AIS) to acquire new units and create future opportunities for redevelopment.

WoodGreen’s affordable housing is a unique model of supportive housing: all tenants have access to the full basket of WoodGreen’s 75 programs and services including food programs and Meals on Wheels, social-recreational programs, congregate dining, social work and mental health supports, transportation, financial empowerment and tax preparation, employment help, key supports for seniors who are isolated and frail, and newcomer settlement services. This added support is key to successful, healthy tenancies for seniors and other vulnerable, marginalized communities.

Getting to 3,000: Examples of Innovation

1. Integration with AIS
Earlier this year we welcomed AIS (Accommodation, Information and Support), another Toronto supportive housing provider, into the WoodGreen family. This added 64 units at four sites to WoodGreen’s portfolio of housing. We are uniquely positioned to offer a full basket of services including child care, seniors’ services with a focus on psychogeriatric mental health support, newcomer support, employment and many other mental health services to our residents.
2. Building new housing
WoodGreen is currently building new affordable housing at 1117 Gerrard Street East. Formerly home to the Riverdale United Church, the location is being transformed into a five storey, 36-unit affordable housing location for seniors.
3. Partnerships
We’ve formed brand new partnerships with builders in Toronto to co-design new builds for key demographics in need, and we will further work to seek out new partnerships with developers, government and the private sector in order to add critical supply at a fast pace to meet the immense need for affordable housing in Toronto.
4. Tower Renewal
We have kick-started a capital improvement plan across our sites that includes deep energy retrofits to the majority of our buildings, ensuring that they will remain affordable for the next generation.