Posted On: January 2, 2025, Posted By: Lisa Queen, YorkRegion.com, Original Article
These affordable housing projects have been in the works for years, but 2025 will be the year when construction moves forward on three and possibly four significant initiatives in Newmarket.
Meanwhile, while Mayor John Taylor applauds proceeding to the construction phase, he wants an end to the piecemeal approach of paying for affordable housing.
He’s calling for the launch of a comprehensive funding strategy to bankroll affordable housing across Canada as the country struggles with a “housing crisis.”
Projects under construction in 2025 are:
- Inn from the Cold — a new shelter and transitional housing supports will be built on the west side of Yonge Street, south of the Eagle Street provincial courthouse and north of the Quaker Meeting House. The agency will move from its current location at 510 Penrose St., near Mulock Drive and Bayview Avenue.
- Blue Door’s former Kevin Place shelter at 835 Gorham St. is being replaced with 14 affordable stacked townhouses.
- Trinity Coptic Foundation, the non-for-profit organization of Markham’s St. Maurice and St. Verena Coptic Orthodox Church, will begin construction of a rental housing building, including affordable units, on Yonge Street north of Eagle Street.
- If the federal and provincial governments come through with their share of funding, construction could begin in late 2025 on affordable housing at 62 Bayview Pkwy. The project will be built by Housing York, the Region of York’s housing company. The majority of units will be rent geared to income, with the rest rented at market value.
The projects point to the need for a number of providers — governments, non-profits and faith organizations — to supply affordable housing, said Taylor, who is chair of Housing York.
While not an affordable housing project, work will be underway in 2025 on Canadian Mental Health Association York Region and South Simcoe’s “first of its kind” mental health hub at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Gladman Avenue. Some people experiencing homelessness deal with mental health concerns and addictions.
Newmarket has the largest per capital number of social services than any community in York Region, he said.
“Maybe I’m biased because I’m the mayor but I believe we’ve got a community that is not about exclusion and NIMBYism and saying no. This is a community that proves itself over and over that it will rush in to support people, to work with the most vulnerable,” he said.
Other communities have social services but mayors and regional councillors are looking for ways to more equitably distribute resources across the region, Taylor said.
Meanwhile, he’s distressed about the lack of a national affordable housing funding strategy supported by all levels of government, particularly the federal and provincial governments.
“We all know, and it’s not just a phrase, we’re in a housing crisis, and especially an affordable housing crisis. I lose sleep over this,” Taylor said.
“They’re talking about housing … but nobody’s talking about true government intervention like we’ve seen in decades past long ago, where the government comes in and really takes the lead and says we’re going to build x number of units. Here’s how many billions are going to go towards it, here’s the partnership structure. We can all play a role. You can say it has to be matching funds with other levels of government, whatever it is, whichever level of government wants to lead. But we don’t have a long-term, fully funded housing financial strategy.”
The time for talk is over, Taylor said.
“We’ve strategized ourselves to death. The region has housing and homelessness plans, the federal government has a plan, the province has got their housing strategies or policies,” he said.
“It’s time. It’s now all about funding. I know there’s a lot of competing interests and I know there’s only one taxpayer and all that is true but if people believe, and I believe the public is more and more coming to this point, that perhaps the No. 1 issue we have is housing, then we’ve got to put our money where our mouths are.”