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Housing
I firmly believe that the housing crisis is the underlying cause of many of the Western world's most significant social and political issues. The lack of housing for young people has created a sense of hopelessness, which contributes to increasing mental health issues, higher social tension and rising crime rates. Solving the housing crisis, we will give people a chance to build a life. Without a home, there is no permanency, no stability, no future.
Missing Middle Housing
When I first moved back to Toronto, I focused my efforts on missing middle housing. I bought a 500 sq ft single-family home and got approval to convert it into a ten-unit apartment building with 6 family-sized units (all larger than the original home). After approvals, the project was sold to Globizen to complete. I also partnered with More Neighbours Toronto to publish a guide to help other non-professional developers undertake similar projects and support the densification of Toronto's suburbs.
Condo Advocacy
Since moving back to Toronto, I've rented a condo. As I continued to advocate for increased housing densification, I realized nobody was talking about the issues in existing high-rise condos that are affecting affordability and liveability for the hundreds of thousands of Torontonians who live in condos.
Specifically, residents, tenants, and landlords alike have to deal with rising condo fees, poor maintenance, and unliveable neighbourhoods.
Condo fees are a major challenge; when an owner is already paying a mortgage, adding $500-$1,000+ in condo fees per month can make it financially unfeasible to live in a condo or cause landlords to lose money trying to rent it out. For tenants, high condo fees force landlords to keep rents high, creating an artificial floor for rent prices in Toronto.
The biggest challenge caused by poor maintenance is long elevator wait times. I have waited over an hour for my elevator and hear similar concerns from residents of other buildings. Currently, there is no accountability for poor maintenance that affects our day-to-day lives, making us late for work or school, or taking away time we could spend with our loved ones.
Downtown Toronto is becoming increasingly difficult for residents to live in. A lack of green space, increased noise pollution, dirty streets, poor transit, a lack of schools, and other issues are causing people to leave Toronto. These issues are solvable at the municipal and provincial levels with minimal investment, so long as our representatives actually care to solve them. I am pushing to ensure they do.
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