Item - 2023.RA4.4

The Board of Directors of CreateTO: 

1.  Directed that the Confidential Presentation from the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, remain confidential as it contains financial information supplied in confidence to the CreateTO Board which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a number of organizations and relates to a position, plan or instruction to be applied to negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the Board of Directors of CreateTO and the City.

The Board of Directors of CreateTO recessed its public session to meet in closed session to consider the item and to hear a confidential presentation from the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, as it pertains to financial information supplied in confidence to the CreateTO Board which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a number of organizations and relates to a position, plan or instruction to be applied to negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the Board of Directors of CreateTO and the City.

On January 30, 2019, City Council approved a signature affordable housing program, the "Housing Now Initiative," to leverage City-owned land for the purpose of creating new, mixed-use, mixed-income communities near transit. Through the Initiative, 11 properties were initially identified for development, with the potential to create a total of 10,000 new residential units.

On May 28, 2020, Council approved the addition of six more sites to the Housing Now Initiative with the potential to create 1,455 to 1,700 additional residential units.

On October 28, 2021 Planning and Housing Committee endorsed four Phase Three sites which were endorsed by Council on November 9th and 10th. These sites are estimated to add between 1,150 and 1,400 net new homes. A further six Pipeline Sites were also endorsed by Council for preliminary due diligence. The Housing Now Initiative is coordinated through a Steering Committee composed of senior staff from the Housing Secretariat, City Planning and CreateTO.

The purpose of this report is to provide the CreateTO Board of Directors with a broad status update on the progress made to-date on activating the 21 properties and future pipeline sites.