Housing Affordbility

Ontario is facing a housing and affordability crisis, and our government is failing to take real action. The cost of rent in many cities has surpassed the cost of a mortgage, yet there is little rent control to protect tenants from skyrocketing prices. This is because corporate landlords are exploiting the market, buying up properties in bulk, and artificially driving up costs. Beyond the affordability crisis, our communities are becoming increasingly unsustainable. Instead of prioritizing affordable and walkable communities, developers are building homes only the upper middle class can afford. This leads to urban sprawl, forcing people into car-dependent lifestyles and making housing even more unattainable for working Ontarians.

Our cities are also becoming hostile by design: Benches designed to be hostile to the homeless, preventing people from resting. Restaurants banning youth under 18, even if they’re paying customers. Car-focused infrastructure, making it impossible for many Ontarians to live without a car. This is unacceptable. Ontario’s cities should work for all of us—not just for those who can afford luxury condos or multiple properties.

While the federal NDP, led by Jagmeet Singh, has pushed for a Renters Bill of Rights, it is only a starting point. The policy lacks specific key improvements needed, such as stricter enforcement or provincial backing for tenant protections. Without addressing these gaps, Ontario tenants will continue to be left behind.

Additionally, the Ontario NDP is falling into the Ford government’s trap by focusing entirely on the toll highway issue, rather than confronting the root cause of urban sprawl. Doug Ford’s Conservatives have had nine years to address this issue and have done nothing but make it worse. The reality? The Ford government is lying to Ontarians about the highway—they could have fixed this problem years ago, but they chose not to. Instead of playing into Ford’s distractions, we need to push for real solutions to Ontario’s housing and community sustainability crisis.

Ontario’s housing market is broken, and the government has failed to fix it. We need urgent reforms to protect tenants, curb corporate greed, and ensure new developments prioritize affordability over profit. A key issue is our Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), which has become a bureaucratic nightmare that benefits landlords while leaving tenants in limbo. We need to streamline hearings, enforce strict rent caps, and prevent corporate landlords from exploiting legal loopholes that allow them to push people out of their homes.

At the same time, Ontario must stop funding housing developments that do nothing to fix the crisis. If developers want public money, they should be required to build 100% affordable housing—meaning homes that lower middle-class Ontarians can actually afford, not just luxury condos disguised as "affordable units." Additionally, I will push for government investment in modular housing, which offers a faster, more affordable solution to Ontario’s housing shortage. By introducing a new ultra-affordable tier of housing, we can ensure more people have access to safe, stable homes.

We also need to address urban sprawl. Ontario’s cities are being built for cars, not people, and it’s making life harder for everyone. Instead of sprawling, car-dependent suburbs, we should embrace New Urbanism—a development model that focuses on walkable, transit-friendly communities with mixed-use spaces. The Hub-and-Spoke model is an example of this, where smaller urban centers are connected by efficient public transit, reducing congestion and making life more convenient and affordable. This approach is the future, and it’s time Ontario embraced it.