Northern Light
Superstar
Its not nothing, but its less than what Matlow has committed to so far.
Its insufficient.
To be clear, the City really can do only so much to incent private sector rental; its the province and the feds that have the tools.
Both can disincent condo construction in its current form (making building rental more attractive); and the Feds, in particular, can offer supportive CMHC financing for the development of affordable rental housing, just as they did through the 60s and the early 70s. (very effectively I might add)
The City can certainly improve its processes, but I would argue the City's biggest role will be directly building affordable housing, and then also doing what it can to provide private-sector renters a higher quality of life (why I very much like Matlow's commitment to a maximum temperature by-law) which would essentially force landlords to provide some form of air conditioning (the form would be up to them). Doubtless there would be much lead time and some kinks to work out, but its a very good idea.
The 100M buy a building idea isn't bad, per se; the problem is how little 100M buys.
For an older, low-rise building, you're probably looking at ~600k per unit to buy the whole building right now. (can be much more if its high-end); but assuming were' looking for those more affordable properties, that'll buy you about 160 units per year
or 1,600 over the next decade, that's just a bit too 'drop in the bucket' for my liking. The idea might be fine, if it were given 10x the funding. But then there's the question of how to fund it; and also what's going to be required to remediate older buildings in rough shape.
