Controversial proposal aims to boost numbers amid pressure to deliver 1.5m homes
The Ontario government is exploring ways to expand its definition of housing starts to include student accommodations in an effort to meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.
Ontario housing minister Paul Calandra disclosed plans to refine the process of counting various housing types, including student and retirement homes, as part of the province's housing starts.
In a letter to the City of Mississauga, Calandra outlined the ongoing work to integrate data on student housing and other non-traditional living spaces into the province's housing strategy, which includes long-term care beds and basement units.
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“We will continue to explore data sources for tracking the numbers of other institutional types of housing such as student residences and retirement homes for future program years and commit to engaging municipalities on the same,” Calandra said in the letter.
Currently, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Association (CMHC) does not include student housing in its official count of new homes because each person does not have a dedicated entrance, according to a presentation by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Nursing homes, student housing, and hostels are also excluded for the same reason.
The decision to consider adding student homes to its housing start data comes as the province works to hit its self-imposed goal of 1.5 million homes by 2031, which would require an average of 150,000 new housing starts every year.
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In 2023, Ontario recorded 89,297 housing starts, a number the government boosted to 109,011 by including long-term care beds and other alternative spaces like basement units.
The government has strongly defended its decision to include long-term care homes as housing starts, with Premier Doug Ford previously saying, "I challenge anyone to talk to these seniors and tell them they have a bed and not a home — they have their own room, they eat in a dining room with everyone else. These are homes."
However, some, like Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser, have criticized the move as "deceptive" and "fluffing their numbers."
“It’s deceptive, it’s misleading, it’s unreasonable to do that,” Fraser said.
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