Item - 2024.PH11.10

The Planning and Housing Committee recommends that:

1. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning make available on the City of Toronto website updated implementation practices for Rental Housing Demolition and Conversion applications.

2. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to implement indexing of average market rent for vacant units when calculating rent gap assistance and secure such indexing in Section 111 agreements.

3. City Council reiterate previous requests to the Province of Ontario to protect existing renters and rental stock by:

a. maintaining the City’s ability to require rental replacement, including any associated conditions, as part of any rental demolition project; and

b. re-introducing rent control to cover units occupied after November 15, 2018.

4. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to continue discussions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on the methodology for how vacant purpose-built rental units are surveyed as part of the annual Rental Market Report and identify improvements to ensure rental data reflects local market areas.

5. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to report to the Planning and Housing Committee in the first quarter of 2025 on the feasibility of including the secondary market (condominiums) in the calculation of area-specific rent gap payments, and whether the inclusion of such properties more accurately reflects local rental markets.

6. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to make all reasonable attempts to include the new rent gap approach in Rental Housing Demolition applications subject to conditional approvals without finalized Section 111 agreements, and report back, where applicable, to the appropriate Community Council with recommendations to apply the new rent gap payment calculation resulting from Recommendation 1 in the Decision Advice, if adopted.

7. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, to ensure existing supports and programs are available to support tenants with previous Section 111 agreements that are in danger of losing safe, similar, appropriate housing in the same District due to insufficient rent gap payments.

8. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, ensure that tenants at risk of, or have been subject to, a “demoviction” are represented at the Renters’ Action Committee, established by MM11.34 to understand the experience with the rental replacement process, with an emphasis on understanding long-term outcomes of rental replacement on tenants’ housing stability. 

9. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report in the first quarter of 2025 on compliance with tenant relocation and assistance policies during the relocation period in Section 111 agreements not addressed in the Auditor General’s report of February 4, 2022 regarding Rental Replacement policies.

10. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to publicly communicate outcomes of the rental replacement and tenant relocation and assistance policy.

11.  City Council direct that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the supplementary report (March 19, 2024) from the City Solicitor remain confidential, in its entirety, as it contains advice which is subject to solicitor-client privilege.

The Planning and Housing Committee recommends that:

1. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning make available on the City of Toronto website updated implementation practices for Rental Housing Demolition and Conversion applications.

2. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to implement indexing of average market rent for vacant units when calculating rent gap assistance and secure such indexing in Section 111 agreements.

3. City Council reiterate previous requests to the Province of Ontario to protect existing renters and rental stock by:

a. maintaining the City’s ability to require rental replacement, including any associated conditions, as part of any rental demolition project; and

b. re-introducing rent control to cover units occupied after November 15, 2018.

4. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to continue discussions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on the methodology for how vacant purpose-built rental units are surveyed as part of the annual Rental Market Report and identify improvements to ensure rental data reflects local market areas.

5. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to report to the Planning and Housing Committee in the first quarter of 2025 on the feasibility of including the secondary market (condominiums) in the calculation of area-specific rent gap payments, and whether the inclusion of such properties more accurately reflects local rental markets.

6. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to make all reasonable attempts to include the new rent gap approach in Rental Housing Demolition applications subject to conditional approvals without finalized Section 111 agreements, and report back, where applicable, to the appropriate Community Council with recommendations to apply the new rent gap payment calculation resulting from Recommendation 1 in the Decision Advice, if adopted.

7. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, to ensure existing supports and programs are available to support tenants with previous Section 111 agreements that are in danger of losing safe, similar, appropriate housing in the same District due to insufficient rent gap payments.

8. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, ensure that tenants at risk of, or have been subject to, a “demoviction” are represented at the Renters’ Action Committee, established by MM11.34 to understand the experience with the rental replacement process, with an emphasis on understanding long-term outcomes of rental replacement on tenants’ housing stability. 

9. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report in the first quarter of 2025 on compliance with tenant relocation and assistance policies during the relocation period in Section 111 agreements not addressed in the Auditor General’s report of February 4, 2022 regarding Rental Replacement policies.

10. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to publicly communicate outcomes of the rental replacement and tenant relocation and assistance policy.

11.  City Council direct that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the supplementary report (March 19, 2024) from the City Solicitor remain confidential, in its entirety, as it contains advice which is subject to solicitor-client privilege.

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1.  Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to review the use of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data on Private Apartment Average Rents, by Year of Construction and Bedroom Type – Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA) for purpose-built rental buildings constructed 2015+ to calculate rent gap assistance and report directly to the April 17, 18 and 19 City Council meeting on the reliability of such data and how it can be immediately implemented for all active Rental Housing Demolition applications.

This report responds to City Council’s request for the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and City Solicitor to review components of the City’s implementation approach and approval conditions for Rental Housing Demolition applications submitted under Chapter 667 of the Toronto Municipal Code (“Chapter 667”).

The report addresses the following rental replacement implementation matters:

• Requiring additional purpose-built market rent units as a condition of approval for Rental Housing Demolition applications;
  
  
• Feasibility of using secondary market (i.e., condominium) rental data to inform how financial compensation is calculated as part of Tenant Relocation and Assistance Plans for eligible tenants; and
  
  
• Providing income-eligible post-application tenants the option to rent available replacement affordable rental units prior to eligible individuals who are on the Centralized Affordable Rental Housing Access System.

Staff are not recommending changes in response to the above implementation matters as such changes could unintentionally negatively impact the City’s existing rental replacement policy framework. The report identifies recent process improvements, such as indexing rental market data, to ensure compensation provided under the Tenant Relocation and Assistance Plan better reflects current market data. Staff will also be publishing updated implementation practices for Rental Housing Demolition applications that will provide for a plain language resource for members of the public and the development industry to reference.

Legal Services and the Housing Secretariat were consulted in the development of this report.

Staff have been requested to report to the Planning and Housing Committee by the end of Q1 2024 with advice regarding whether and how, when considering rental demolition applications for large rental buildings, conditions can be imposed to double the amount of rental space in replacement buildings by requiring new purpose built market rental units within the development, in addition to rental replacement units and any appropriate thresholds for the imposition of such conditions.

This report has been prepared by the City Solicitor in consultation with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning in response to City Council's direction and is Supplementary to the Report from the Executive Director and Chief Planner dated March 15, 2024, entitled "Response to Including New Approval Conditions for Rental Demolition Applications".