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Mitzie Hunter issues plan to reduce the number of “food deserts” via small grocery stores

More than 100 small grocery store locations at below market rents key part of her affordable housing plan

Toronto – Mitzie Hunter, mayoral candidate, says her affordable housing plan takes aim at Toronto’s “food deserts” with dozens of small grocery stores located across the city in her integrated family-friendly communities.

All 108 affordable housing developments in the first phase of Hunter’s plan will have retail space offered at below market rents to small businesses especially small and medium sized grocery stores providing fresh food and produce to residents.

“Too many Torontonians live in “food deserts” -- neighbourhoods where residents have little or no access to stores and restaurants that provide healthy and affordable fresh foods,” says Hunter.

“In many parts of the city, small fruit and vegetable stores are a feature of thriving streets. Bringing these types of stores to my Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation buildings will help ensure healthier and fresher food options are available.”

Hunter’s affordable housing plan will create more affordable units that other candidate.

Hunter previously announced that her new affordable housing developments will be leaders in green construction and operation, will provide 68 new parkettes and playgrounds across the city, will provide 74 new satellite locations for Toronto Public Health and Toronto Public Library, will house 34 new childcare centres and an additional 34 Toronto Public Library satellite branches. With today’s announcement, she is providing the additional details that her plan also provides below market rate rental retail spaces for small grocery and fresh produce stores.

Hunter is the only candidate to include community space dedicated to public services in her housing proposal.

Olivia Chow dedicates 20 per cent of her buildings to business and retail operations with nothing provided for community services. 

Josh Matlow’s buildings have no retail or community space at all.

“We are in a housing crisis and that’s why we need to unlock public lands to build more affordable housing for renters and people who want a chance to buy. We need to build communities that fit in all our neighbourhoods. That’s why I propose 10, 15 and 20-storey family friendly buildings,” says Hunter.

“We need to do things differently. We need to Fix the Six. And that means building family-friendly buildings surrounded by green space, playgrounds and parks. They are buildings that that house critical public health, library and childcare services. I am additionally taking aim at Toronto’s ‘food deserts’ by including in my plan buildings that have grocery stores providing fresh produce and other products throughout our city.”

Hunter’s five-point plan to deliver more affordable rental and ownership housing will:

  1. Unlock public lands to build more new affordable housing than any other candidate;
  2. Make the end of the multiplex ban meaningful by providing incentives to build multiplexes of up to four units in every part of the City;
  3. Permit rental apartments of up to eight storeys on major streets and near campuses;
  4. Speed up building approvals and construction; and
  5. Protect renters and save current affordable housing. 

The centrepiece of Hunters plan is a new Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation (TAHC).

Over its first six years, the new TAHC will:

  • Build 108 new developmentson City owned land.
  • These developments will be between 10 and 20 storeys and be suitable for small and medium sized lots in every part of the city.
  • Deliver nearly 22,700 units providing housing for approximately 53,650 people with 16,556 of these units to be purpose-built rental units.
  • Ensure that the majority of these68 per cent -- will be affordable units.
  • The overwhelming majority of units proposed by every other candidate are unaffordable condos or apartments offered at today’s rental rates. 
  • 80% of Anna Bailao’s proposed units are not affordable housing.
  • 70% of Olivia Chow’s proposed units are not affordable housing.
  • 67% of Brad Bradford’s proposed units are not affordable housing.
  • 55% of Josh Matlow’s proposed units are not affordable housing.
  • In Phase 1 the TAHC will deliver 11,236 affordable rental apartments.
  • This is the most of any candidate. This is 3,736 more than proposed by Olivia Chow and 4,486 more than proposed by Josh Matlow.
  • Candidates that support the failed developer led status quo approach offer percentages, not actual numbers of new affordable units.
  • Ana Bailao, Brad Bradford and Mark Saunders all propose only 20 per cent to 33 per cent affordable rental units.
  • Hunter’s TAHC buildings will also be the most family-friendly of any candidate’s proposal.  More than 55 per cent of all units are two and three bedrooms. Other proposals have no more than 40 per cent.
  • Hunter’s TAHC plan will create communities with 17 acres of new parks, playgrounds and green space at 68 sites across the city. 
  • Hunter’s plan will include dedicated community space for 74 new satellite locations for Toronto Public Health and the Toronto Public Library.
  • Phase 1 will also build 34 new satellite Public Library locations and 34 new Child Care locations.

In developing her plan, Hunter drew on her experience as CAO of Toronto Community Housing prior to being MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood and a senior cabinet minister.

The other leading candidates who have released housing plans all continue the failed status quo approach. The majority of units they create are market rentals or unaffordable condos. The majority of units are one bedroom and not fit for families and none offers anything to people looking to buy an affordable home.

In contrast, Hunter’s plan builds more affordable housing units for renters and buyers alike and more than any other plan in family-friendly buildings that can fit into every part of the city and chooses parks over parking lots adding more greenspace than that proposed by any other candidate. Hunter’s buildings also bring City services directly into more neighbourhoods with satellite TPL, TPH offices and on-site child care.

Hunter’s housing plan is the most detailed, practical and comprehensive plan issued by any mayoral candidate as well as being fully-costed and part of her budget plan to be issued before voting begins in June.

“We can do this, we must do it, and if we are to have a city that works for everyone, everywhere, we must grow the supply of affordable housing for both renters and buyers. Let's grab control of the levers as a city and get it done. My plan does this.”

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Contact:

Charmain Emerson

charmain@culturedcommunications.ca 

Remarks by Mitzie Hunter announcing her policy for plan for affordable housing and small grocery stores, May 20, 2023: 

  • During this campaign I have steadily unrolled policy that forms the basis of my campaign platform. 
  • Homelessness… and housing stability. 
  • TTC safety… so people can feel safe… and be safe.
  • Getting Toronto moving again… 
  • By reversing TTC service cuts… 
  • Rolling back fare increases… 
  • And seniors ride free… on the TTC.
  • Laying out my TTC construction priorities…
  • Fighting back… against food insecurity. 
  • My plan for arts and culture in Toronto. 
  • All this, and I am committed to issuing a full costing in a budget before voting starts in June.
  • I am putting forward my plan in a steady, deliberate and principled way…
  • So that when people vote for me… they know exactly what they are getting if they elect me as their mayor.
  • Today…  I'm here to talk about my affordable housing plan… Again.
  • Because people across Toronto keep telling me that the lack of affordable housing in our city is their biggest concern.
  • People are worried. They don't know if they can continue to live here, let alone whether their children will be able to stay as they get older. 
  • So I'm going to continue through these next six weeks to talk about what we must do to add more affordable housing.
  • It is so important. 
  • I have put forward a five-point plan for more affordable housing, more quickly.
  • My detailed and practical plan will:
  • Unlock… public lands for more new affordable housing…
  • End… the multiplex ban…
  • Add… rental apartments on major streets and near campuses 
  • Speed up… building approvals and construction…
  • Protect… renters and save current affordable housing.
  • The centrepiece of my plan is a new Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation which will build thousands of below-market affordable units… in family-friendly communities… for buyers and renters alike.
  • Today… I am issuing further details of my affordable housing plan.
  • My affordable housing plan takes direct aim at Toronto’s “food deserts”.
  • Too many Torontonians live in these “food deserts”…
  • Neighbourhoods where residents have little or no access to stores and restaurants that provide healthy and affordable fresh foods.
  • Under my affordable housing plan…  there will be dozens of small grocery stores located across the city in my integrated family-friendly communities.
  • All 108 affordable housing developments in the first phase of my plan will have retail space offered at below market rents to small businesses…
  • Especially small and medium sized grocery stores…providing fresh food and produce to local residents.
  • Having access to healthy food is a great way to help our people be healthy.
  • In many parts of the city, small fruit and vegetable stores are a feature of thriving streets.
  • Bringing these types of stores to my Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation buildings will help ensure healthier and fresher food options are available. 
  • I am the only candidate to include community space dedicated to public services in her housing proposal.
  • Olivia Chow dedicates 20 per cent of her buildings to business and retail operations with nothing provided for community services.
  • Josh Matlow’s buildings have no retail or community space at all.
  • My affordable housing buildings will include 74 new satellite offices for the delivery of services by Toronto Public Health… and Toronto Public Library services.
  • Under my plan, affordable developments will house 34 new childcare centres
  • And an additional 34 Toronto Public Library satellite branches.
  • There will be new Youth Hubs… offering welcoming drop-in places for teens after school and in the summer months. 
  • Toronto Public Health nurses will also be able to use these spaces to deliver Family Health services.
  • Things like pregnancy and newborn programs… and breastfeeding clinics. 
  • We are in a housing crisis. 
  • That’s why we need to unlock public lands to build more affordable housing… for renters and people who want a chance to buy.
  • My vision is that build communities that fit in all our neighbourhoods.
  • That’s why I am proposing small to medium-sized buildings in family-friendly communities… surrounded by green space, playgrounds and parks.
  • We need to do things differently. We need to Fix the Six.
  • My affordable housing plan means new solutions. 
  • Thousands of shared-equity homes so people can buy. 
  • Thousands of homes for renters, more than any other candidate.
  • More laneway and garden suites with fast approvals. 
  • Spreading out density with new apartment buildings of up to eight storeys along major streets.
  • Other candidates all continue the failed status quo approach.
  • Their buildings are all too big for most neighbourhoods.
  • Forty-storey building that don’t fit in any neighbourhood.
  • The majority of their units are market rentals or unaffordable condos.
  • The majority of their units are one bedroom and not fit for families.
  • They don’t offer anything for people looking to buy an affordable home.
  • My plan builds more affordable housing units for renters and buyers alike… more than any other plan… in greener, family friendly buildings with more parks that can fit into every part of the city.
  • My plan represents a complete change in how to get it done…
  • So we, the people of Toronto, can control the delivery of affordable homes for real results. 
  • We have to do things differently…
  • The same old, same old isn't working and everyone knows that. Let's choose to do better.  
  • You can find all the details on the Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation, how it works and how it will deliver for people, in my 23-page background document. 
  • My plan is the most detailed, practical, and comprehensive plan issued by any mayoral candidate.
  • My plan draws on my experience as CAO of Toronto Community Housing prior to being MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood and a senior cabinet minister.
  • Detailed, practical, comprehensive. My plan gets the job done.
  • We can do this, and we must do it.
  • Toronto is at a turning point, we can’t let it become a breaking point.
  • I want to turn Toronto around for the better.
  • Toronto needs a new leader… with broader experience… and a fresh perspective -- not the same faces from the same places. 
  • It’s time we bring more people on the outside… to the inside of City Hall. 
  • That’s who I am… and what I’ve done.
  • In Scarborough… In business… At Toronto housing... And as cabinet minister in really tough portfolios.
  • Let’s choose to do better.
  • That’s why I am running for mayor.
  • Because I want to lead Toronto’s revival as a city that works for everyone, everywhere.
  • Join me. I ask for your support. 
  • Let’s Fix the Six… Together.

 

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