QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to news that the government’s failure to meet affordable housing targets means the province may lose $357 million in federal funding.
“The government’s abysmal failure to meet its own affordable housing targets is appalling – and everyday Ontarians are the ones paying the price.
I have been calling on this government to get back into the business of building affordable and supportive homes for six years now.
Instead, the Premier has wasted those years championing costly sprawl and sowing fear about common-sense solutions to build more homes in existing neighbourhoods by legalizing gentle density.
Ontario desperately needs an all-hands-on-deck plan to get back to building homes for people and the public good.
Solutions like the ones I have been putting forward for years:
- Investing in deeply affordable non-profit and co-op housing so that everyone has an affordable place to call home;
- Ramping up investments in permanent supportive housing with wrap-around mental health, addictions and other supports; and
- Legalizing gentle density to allow fourplexes and four-story buildings in existing neighbourhoods and six to 11 stories on transit corridors.”