‘It’s not a profit making venture,’ Housing expert explains the benefits of living in a Toronto co-op

What to know

A new co-operative housing building called the Atkinson Co-op has just opened in Alexandra Park.

Tom Clement from Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto, says the main selling point of co-op housing for individuals is having a say in the building the live in.

Unlike renting, Clement says housing charges, aka rent, in a co-op is under market rate, which makes it affordable.

Current co-op housing under construction include Kennedy Green and an unnamed building in Etobicoke.

A housing advocate is highlighting the benefits of co-operative housing in Toronto as an affordable and sustainable alternative to renting, as a new co-operative housing development has just opened in Alexandra Park.

The Atkinson Co-operative, located at 130 Augusta Ave., is part of Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) ongoing efforts to revitalize Alexandra Park. The building contains 103 units and 99 of those are rent-geared-to-income units. 

The Atkinson Co-op isn’t new, according to Michael Lam, the acting senior director of Development at the TCHC. The neighbourhood was first developed in the mid 1960s, from a combination of federal and provincial government funding. 

He says the Atkinson Co-op is the first and only social housing community to self-organize as a housing co-op in the early 2000s. Prior to that, the housing units were managed by the Alexandra Park Residents Association. TCHC got involved in the early 2010s.

“The co-op invited TCHC to start a revitalization process on their neighbourhood. This happened around 2011 and by about 2014 we’d actually started the project,” Lam explains.

What is a co-op?

What makes living in a co-operative housing unit different from renting in a regular apartment building or a single-family home?

Tom Clement, the executive director of Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto (CHFT), says the main selling point of co-op housing for individuals is having a say in the building you live in. 

“Co-op housing is really about the members who live in a co-op — running the co-op, having a say in how the buildings look, giving input into capital projects,” he explains.

Clement says CHFT is looking to set up a land trust to keep the co-ops they help develop affordable forever. In the case of co-ops, a land trust is a community non-profit or charitable organization that helps preserve, maintain and secure affordable housing for future generations.

Since establishing land trusts in the 1980s, Clement says numerous co-ops have paid off their mortgage, allowing for future building improvements. 

Since Olivia Chow was elected as mayor, Clement says the wait time for rezoning a property has decreased to 70 days on average, which planners and developers find to be absurdly fast.

“Planners, developers and everybody I talked to has found it unbelievable that the city was able to move so fast. That’s what Olivia Chow has done. There are lots of programmes for tenants groups or organisations like ours to purchase small apartment buildings,” Clement says, “It’s really saving rental housing in the city.”

Of all the co-ops under CHFT’s roster, the Kennedy Green co-op is currently the largest co-op under construction in 25 years. 

A recently constructed co-op is the Naismith Co-op, which are 10 units located in Ten York Street in Downtown Toronto. 

Another co-op that CHFT is breaking ground on is in Etobicoke and will have 180 units, but they’re still working on securing funding from the government. 

Benefits of living in a co-op

As long as you live in a co-op, Clement says, you can be confident that the rent — which co-ops call a “housing charge” — won’t skyrocket. He says long-term, the rent in co-ops do not go up as fast as the market rate, allowing units to stay affordable.

“[Prices] might seem a little close to market [rate] in the beginning, but it remains affordable in the long run. Many of our co-ops are 30 to 35 years old. People are paying affordable housing charges because we’re not making a profit. It’s not a profit making venture.”

Unlike a rental apartment, there are no greedy landlords or investors that aim to make as much money from a housing project as possible. But securing a co-op unit is almost impossibly difficult. Many co-op housing buildings pick residents based on a monthly lottery system, giving all interested Torontonians a fair chance at winning affordable housing.

“If there is surplus [revenue], it’s going right back into the co-op and [residents] have access to the books. They know how much the costs are being raised,” Clement says.