WoodGreen, one of the largest non-municipal providers of affordable housing in the City of Toronto, has a longstanding history of both building new and managing existing affordable housing sites across the city. To date more than 1,000 families live in WoodGreen’s 12 affordable housing locations. In fact, WoodGreen was designated an Affordable Housing Champion by the City of Toronto in early 2018.
To advance its housing mission, WoodGreen is currently building new affordable housing at 1117 Gerrard Street East. Formerly home to the Riverdale United Church, the location will be transformed into a five storey, 36 unit affordable housing complex for seniors. The building at 1117 Gerrard Street East is being constructed not only with an aesthetically appealing neighbourhood-fit, but also in accordance with the highest accessibility and to Toronto Green Standards.
Since 1967, WoodGreen has expanded access to affordable housing units across Toronto's East End
805
UNITS
12
LOCATIONS
1000 +
PEOPLE HOUSED
Funded in part by the City of Toronto’s Open Door Program, the new building is being developed in partnership with New Commons Development (NCD), a non-profit development company that is dedicated to building and preserving community assets—especially affordable housing. The partnership with NCD brings needed capacity in the form of technical expertise, and access to private and public capital to support new affordable housing in Toronto’s private sector-dominated marketplace.
When building new housing, WoodGreen makes reaching out to neighbours and the community a top priority every step of the way. As part of the planning process for this project, WoodGreen undertook extensive community engagement and outreach with great support from City Councillor Paula Fletcher and the surrounding community. As part of community engagement, WoodGreen invited the local community into the church to retrieve various building fixtures and valuables before demolition began.
The new building will connect to an adjacent WoodGreen-owned and managed building at 1119 Gerrard Street East. Together, the two buildings will create an attractive campus of affordable seniors housing. Currently, the units are set at 80% of market rental rate. WoodGreen’s housing team is working to ensure that applicants receive all available rent supports and supplements to make the new building accessible to a wider range of low and moderate income people in need of housing. In addition, the two buildings will also have a shared common space, and the Parent Resource Centre that had been located at the old church will have a beautiful new space to be able to continue its fantastic programming.The occupancy of 1117 Gerrard Street East is projected for the fall 2019, however WoodGreen is already rolling out plans to add more affordable housing, and we look forward to new and ongoing partnerships to address the growing need for affordable housing in Toronto’s vibrant and healthy communities.
“WoodGreen is adding 36 units of affordable housing for seniors at 1117 Gerrard Street East, stepping up to meet the challenge for new, affordable housing in Toronto.”