Chris Spoke, founder of Housing Matters, has enjoyed enviable success in getting his various opinion nuggets placed in mainstream media outlets. The gist of these articles is consistently the message that land use rules, zoning bylaws, and approval processes have combined to create scarcity, which in turn has led to the affordability crisis.
According to its website, Housing Matters is a grassroots organization of "urbanists, activists, and others..."
And what sorts of ideas have these urbanists, activists, and others come up with to make housing affordable in Toronto? Just check out this headline from A8 in today's Globe;
"If the city wants housing affordability, it should build more luxury condos."
Hmm... while I wouldn't want to rain on their parade, they should take a gander at this article on view at Forbes; US cities have a glut of high-rises but still lack affordable housing. So, trickle-down housing affordability hasn't worked in any major US market, but it'll solve Toronto's housing crisis?
Kinda makes you wonder about those grassroots urbanists and activists, doesn't it? You don't imagine they're just another pro-development pro-industry lobby group rallying to reduce red tape and streamline the approval process for the big developers, do you?
So they can put up more luxury condos?...
Well, of course!
That's how affordable housing happens!
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