Willowdale housing project for homeless seniors underway after years of community pushback, delays

After years of delays, rising costs and local backlash, a supportive housing development intended to fast-track seniors out of homelessness is underway in Toronto's Willowdale neighbourhood.

A planned three-storey modular building on Cummer Avenue is now scheduled to open by early next year, the city says, four years after the city's Planning and Housing Committee unanimously approved a plan to quickly build modular housing on the city-owned property.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow spoke with reporters at an announcement in Willowdale Thursday, saying the project will get 59 seniors off the streets, helping them live independently and age in place.

"It will be a home for a whole lot of seniors that have had mental health issues and have addiction issues," she said. "It's an important day."

The building will offer 59 supportive housing units, all studio apartments, with rent geared to income, Chow said. Non-profit WoodGreen Community Services will manage the building and provide wraparound supports for tenants.

"I hear the hammering in the background. This is a sound of joy, because we've waited for so long," Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters at the development.

But the lead-up to Thursday's announcement wasn't filled with much joy.

Local resistance leads to years of delays

The project immediately met with resistance when it was announced in 2021, as part of a modular housing program launched the year before in response to the city's housing shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Modular housing is made up of factory-built, modular sections that allow it to be constructed and, ideally, opened very quickly. But the province refused a city request to speed up the development's planning approval timeline to get the units in place before the winter of 2021-2022.

A community group also opposed the development from the beginning, ultimately filing an unsuccessful appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal. 

The group had argued the modular homes would fundamentally change the character of the neighbourhood, and make it harder for residents or visitors of Willowdale Manor to find parking and enjoy local green space. They also worried about security at the site and said the city hadn't properly consulted locals.

Delays followed, which Chow says cost the city millions, as the pre-fabricated components of the building had to be stored for years, raising the total price tag to $36.2 million.

Lawyer Eric Gillespie, who represented the community group in the appeal, says his clients were never opposed to building supportive housing in the area. They just wanted to ensure it was for seniors, after the city initially said the project was for people exiting homelessness, and did not designate it for seniors specifically.

The group thought that housing for seniors would be a better fit for the location, Gillespie said, with a seniors housing complex already next door and a long-term care facility nearby.

"But now that the city is saying, 'Oh, it'll be fine for seniors and older residents,'" Gillespie said. "It sure would have been helpful to just say that a long time ago."

Willowdale Coun. Lily Cheng told reporters Thursday that "it was difficult for the city to provide that assurance earlier in the process." 

Advocate calls pushback 'high-octane NIMBYism'

But one advocate says it's not that simple.

"This was a case where a lot of money was thrown at blocking this. This is high-octane NIMBYism," said Mark Richardson, technical lead of HousingNowTO.

"Now, thankfully, all of those avenues of appeal have now been exhausted," he said. "But the money that they wasted on locking or fighting this project would be much better spent as a donation to a local shelter or food bank." 

When compared with other similar projects, he says there's no reason the site shouldn't already be open. 

Four other modular housing initiatives the city announced in 2020 and 2021 have been completed for years now, according to the city's website, providing a total of 216 homes.

Cheng said Thursday the delays and cost escalations were unfortunate, but the city needed the community's trust to proceed. In the face of community opposition, Cheng previously introduced a motion to city council to explore other sites for the project.

But with the original location now finally under construction, Chow says the city still needs an additional 26,000 supportive housing units.

"We're only building 50 to 60 today," Chow said. "We need a lot more so that those seniors that are right now lining up on food banks … that they would have a place to live."