To support the increase in supply of affordable housing in the City of Toronto (the City), enacted City of Toronto By-law No.124-2016, which defines “Affordable Housing” for the purpose of the bylaw and all municipal housing facility agreements as follows:
In exchange for providing affordable housing, developers/landlords can receive property tax exemptions and other incentives to lower their operating costs and thus improve their financial viability. This guide provides an overview of developer requirements for the affordable rental housing, laid out as follows:
For a complete list of terms, see By-law No.124-2016.
The Average Monthly City-wide Rents (AMR) by unit type as determined by the City and published online.
The applicant’s household consists of all persons living in a housing unit aged 16 or over.
Household income at initial occupancy must be at or below the initial income limit, which is four times the annualized monthly occupancy cost for the housing unit in order to be eligible for the unit. This is calculated by multiplying the monthly occupancy costs for an affordable housing rental unit by 48.
The monthly rent payable to the landlord of a housing unit, and the monthly charges for hydro, heat, water, and hot water that apply to that unit. This does not include charges for parking, cable, telephone or any other like charges.
Monthly occupancy costs must be set in accordance with the terms of the Contribution Agreement:
This includes recorded information that identifies an individual, such as, but not limited to:
This applies to any record of information, such as paper, photographs, videos, emails or other format.
A record is:
The number of bedrooms is the unit type.
Provincial Guidelines and By-law No. 124-2016 establish a framework for the City to assist housing developers/operators, in which the City and the developer will enter into a municipal housing project facility agreement. Under the terms of the bylaw and agreement, the landlord must assess eligibility in the following two ways prior to a household moving into an affordable housing rental unit:
Landlords must confirm that the income of the applicant’s household is at or below the initial income limit. See Figure 1 for a sample calculation. The landlord must refuse to offer a unit to an applicant if the applicant’s household income is greater than the initial income limit, and the refusal must be sent to the applicant and retained by the landlord for seven years.
To document that the income limit at initial occupancy has been verified, households must complete and sign an Affordable Housing Household Income Review Form for each applicant and retain this form for seven years. Contact HSS@toronto.ca to obtain a copy of this form.
Richard and Katrina would like to rent an affordable housing unit apartment with a monthly occupancy cost of $1,100. Richard earns $2,000 a month and Katrina earns $2,100 a month.
The annual household income is $49,200, as per the calculations in Table 1.
| A. Household Member | B. Monthly Income | C. Annual Income (B x 12 Months) |
|---|---|---|
| Richard | $2,000.00 | $24,000.00 |
| Katrina | $2,100.00 | $25,200.00 |
| Total Annual Income | $49,200.00 |
The initial income limit is $52,800, as per the calculation in Table 2.
| A. Monthly Occupancy Cost | B. Initial Income Limit (A X 48) |
|---|---|
| $1,100.00 | $52,800.00 |
The household income of $49,200 is less than the initial income limit of $52,800, so the household is eligible for Affordable Rental Housing.
Provincial Guidelines and By-law No. 124-2016 require that all households must be eligible to be on social housing waitlists, which requires that all members of the applicant household be:
To demonstrate that this has been verified, landlords must retain a copy of the appropriate citizenship/documentation.
Acceptable documents are:
The landlord must report annually to the City, confirming that the household incomes of all new households in the preceding year had incomes which were equal to or less than the initial income limit. To report, landlords must complete the Affordable Rental Housing Form: Annual Occupancy Report. Contact HSS@toronto.ca to obtain a copy of this form.
Affordable housing providers will be no longer be required to submit the Confirmation of Initial Income report.
Landlords are responsible for the information they collect, ensuring completeness and protection of privacy, as outlined here.
Landlords must retain the following records for each fiscal year for at least seven years.
Household files must contain:
Landlords must retain decisions to refuse to offer a unit to an applicant, which must include the decision, a copy of the notice given to the household, and the facts that were used to make the decision.
Landlords are required to protect the households’ personal information as per the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
You are required to provide applicants with a written notice which:
You must also advise them that their personal information may only be disclosed to:
If a person disagrees with the personal information in their file, they can ask the landlord to correct the information, or submit a written statement explaining why they disagree with the information, to be retained in their file.
Landlords must take steps to ensure privacy by controlling access to all personal information, such as:
Landlords should dispose of confidential records by either:
With regards to record retention and privacy protection as outlined in this section, landlords must:
Resources are also linked above in appropriate sections.