Human Resources committee  There's definitely not a universal definition out there. The City of Toronto defines affordable housing as housing that is below 100% of average market rent. The city's funding programs target rents to be set at 80% of average market rent or less when they are providing capital funding or other significant incentives.

Human Resources committee  Yes. One basic example is in the City of Toronto. When a rental building is demolished, rental replacement policies require that the affordable rental units in that prior building be rebuilt in the new building and that they be affordable for 10 years. That produces an affordable unit for 10 years.

Human Resources committee  Mr. Racette, shall you go first?

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much for the question. I absolutely agree that municipalities, in being local, have an understanding of the local needs and have collaborations with the partners that they need to work with for success so they can target programs to needs. So, absolutely, providing funding to the municipalities is very import, but, when doing that, it's extremely important that CMHC or the federal government not put strings on the use of those funds or limits on the use of those funds that restrict the kinds of strategies that municipalities want to have but have not been able to have through CMHC funding and financing.

Human Resources committee  Sure. It's very important that capital funding and low-interest financing provided by the federal government go to housing models that have a specific commitment to long-term affordability. Those include co-ops, non-profit organizations, public entities and community land trusts.

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much. Our analysis in our community is quite clear that for the acquisition of an existing rental unit the costs come to around $200,000 to $300,000 per unit. To produce the same unit new would cost between $450,000 and $600,000 per unit. The costs are significantly more.

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much. The City of Toronto this year has put $20 million into the MURA fund. If we assume that the top amount allowed per unit, $200,000, is provided for those projects, that would produce 100 units. If the City of Toronto, for example, received $200 million or more from the federal government, we could exponentially increase the number of units that could be produced.

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much for the question. Our organization has been working to acquire rental buildings for many years. Prior to partnering with the City of Toronto, we experienced 17 failed acquisitions due to the fact that there weren't appropriate programs to support our work. The MURA program came out of collaboration between the City of Toronto and non-profits such as ours, which saw the acquisition of rental housing as important.

Human Resources committee  —that you only need a bit of money to put down a deposit, as well due diligence funding. Thank you so much.

Human Resources committee  Thank you also for that question. We do not build new housing; we acquire existing buildings. We benefit from the fact that those buildings exist already, so our projects are not slowed down by supply chain issues. We can acquire those buildings today. Of course, once you own a building, especially a building that might be a little bit older, there's a need to renovate those buildings, to improve them and repair them over time.

Human Resources committee  Currently we depend on two streams of funding for the acquisition of rental housing. One is municipal grants. One initial project was undertaken through section 37, which was funding received by the municipality through development bonusing. Now the City of Toronto has created the MURA program, which provides access to grant funding from the city, so we apply to that program now through a formal application.

Human Resources committee  That's an incredible question. It's very important. I can tell you that we had a building that we were seeking funding for from the City of Toronto, and we had a business plan to acquire that building. About six weeks ago, we required $4 million in capital funding to make that project work—it was a 36-unit building—and we could finance the rest.

Human Resources committee  Hello, honourable members. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Joshua Barndt, and I'm honoured to present on behalf of the Neighbourhood Land Trust. I am coming to you here today from the neighbourhood of Parkdale in Toronto. The Land Trust owns 85 buildings, with 205 units of affordable rental housing.