The provincial NDP is proposing a plan to create more affordable housing across the province.
It calls for a government agency called Homes Ontario to oversee the construction of new housing units.
Homes Ontario be tasked with financing and building at least 250,000 affordable and non-market homes over ten years.
Those homes would be operated and/or constructed by public, non-profit or co-op housing agencies.
Leader Marit Stiles says they will also work with municipalities on long-term housing strategies and tradespeople and home builders to build the homes.
“It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of partnership, but I know that together we can do big things. We have a housing plan that allows everyone in Ontario to have a place to call home. And I’m really excited to get started,” says Stiles.
The plan is estimated to have annual costs of $15 billion.
“Nonprofit providers and experts have shown that this model can be economically feasible because they’ll have sort of a breakdown where 70% will increase revenue as a result of having market rents as well as mortgages, and 30% will be rent geared to income. In this way, this can continue the process of building,” says Terence Kernaghan, the NDP critic for Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.
The NDP says the government could initiate the plan now and fund it through the contingency fund that has an estimated $22 billion.