When Adam Pelissero first walked through the doors of 50 Torbolton Drive, it had been boarded up for a decade. Chairs and carpets were what remained of the townhome complex\u2019s previous life before its residents were forced out by persistent flooding and mould issues.<\/p>\n
In the intervening years, raccoons had moved in\u00a0and graffiti appeared on the walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing this, it was like, OK, this is a big challenge,\u201d Pelissero said.<\/p>\n
That day in 2018 was the former architect\u2019s first day on the job as a design manager with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and he had been tasked with making the Etobicoke building habitable again.<\/p>\n
As he looked beyond the grime, Pelissero realized the bones of the property were still in surprisingly good shape. Its walls and foundations were solid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just ugly, and it\u2019s in disrepair,\u201d he recalls thinking at the time. \u201cBut there is something here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eighteen years after the 17-unit townhouse complex shuttered, Toronto Community Housing is ready to open it up to new tenants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Thursday, federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson toured the complex\u2019s large, three-bedroom units, a rarity in Toronto\u2019s social housing stock, and walked through the backyard that abuts Berry Creek, whose floodwaters filled the building\u2019s basement and caused it to close in 2008.<\/p>\n
Berry Creek runs behind a renovated and redesigned Toronto Community Housing affordable income community housing building, holding 17 three-bedroom units, in Etobicoke, Ont., on Thursday, July 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chris Young<\/p>\n
Sean Baird, CEO of Toronto Community Housing, says the redesign and renovation were possible because of federal and city funds unlocked in 2018 through the National Housing Strategy. The $9.7 million spent to make it move-in ready pales in comparison to what it might have cost to build something new, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more housing. But if we\u2019re not careful, we could end up losing some of the housing we have quicker than we can build new,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The risk of flooding still exists, but has been mitigated with a simple solution.<\/p>\n
Pelissero said crews blocked off the basement and filled it with gravel, which allows water to pass under the building instead of backing up into units. The inspiration for the gravel-filled basement came from gabion baskets Pelissero saw along the coast of Nova Scotia as a student at Dalhousie.<\/p>\n
Gabions, cages filled with rocks, are used to stabilize shorelines and prevent erosion better than solid walls that fight against the tides.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same idea, the water can come in, the water can go out, but the house above still stands,\u201d Pelissero said.<\/p>\n
The design manager noted it\u2019s a solution that worked for 50 Torbolton Drive, but all buildings in flood plains are different and it\u2019s not a one-size-fits-all fix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original brick walls of the complex, built back in 1962, still stand \u2013 though now encased in thick drywall necessary to meet strict energy efficiency requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pelissero said the complex has been certified as a passive house, a building standard that requires it to consume 90 per cent less energy than conventional buildings, which will in turn reduce utility costs to tenants.<\/p>\n
The townhomes at 50 Torbolton Drive achieve this with substantial insulation and triple-glazed windows that make the building remarkably air tight, as well as a special ventilation system.<\/p>\n
Not only does the insulation act as a thermal barrier, lowering energy costs for heating and cooling, but a barrier to sound as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside one of the units, Pelissero pointed out the window to the cars whizzing by on a busy street.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Islington (Avenue). And we don\u2019t hear anything,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sound-proofing and large size of the units is what makes it an ideal building for families of children with special needs, who will be prioritized for move-in, says Kimberly Moser, a communications manager at TCHC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is accessibility from an autism perspective. Light and sound, it\u2019s really important for those kids,\u201d she said. \u201cA place like this where you can lower the lights, where you don\u2019t hear your neighbours is really good for day-to-day living.\u201d<\/p>\n
An exterior view of a renovated and redesigned Toronto Community Housing affordable income community housing building, holding 17 three-bedroom units, in Etobicoke, Ont., on Thursday, July 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chris Young<\/p>\n
The building\u2019s new tenants will be selected from the City of Toronto\u2019s social housing waitlist, currently more than 100,000 applications long, or residents may be transferred in from other TCHC housing, freeing up units in other locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rent will be set at 30 per cent of the household\u2019s income, TCHC says, and residents could move in as soon as August.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Thursday, the housing minister called the site a \u201cpowerful example\u201d of governments working with non-profits to transform abandoned properties into affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere housing has gone derelict, in particular \u2013 we need to rebuild. We need to retrofit,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n
Baird, the CEO of TCHC, says the housing provider is working through a backlog of repairs that, unaddressed, could threaten to take more housing off-line. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2025, 56 per cent of the housing provider\u2019s developments were in poor or critical condition, an improvement from 2017 when 73 per cent of complexes were in the same state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a long-term plan that lays out our prioritization around when we\u2019re going to get to every one of those communities. But we need that funding to continue and be renewed,\u201d Baird said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Adam Pelissero first walked through the doors of 50 Torbolton Drive, it had been boarded up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[45,49,48,1007,83,11867,968,715,3302],"class_list":["post-792309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-construction","tag-disaster","tag-ontario-quebec","tag-real-estate","tag-social","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}