- Blue Door's Housing for All Land Trust aims to create and preserve affordable housing in York Region.
- The land trust plans to raise funds for acquiring, developing, and maintaining affordable housing stock.
- A key focus of the trust is protecting existing affordable units from being lost due to redevelopment, renovations, or ownership transfers.
- The trust intends to collaborate with municipalities, private developers, and other partners to identify underused land and housing opportunities.
- Blue Door is seeking commitments from five local municipalities to help deliver 500 affordable housing units over the next five years.
- CEO Michael Braithwaite requested Stouffville’s participation in a deputation to council on Dec. 11, 2024.
Blue Door, founded in 1982, plays an active role in addressing homelessness throughout the area. The registered charity is York Region’s largest provider of emergency housing, and their programming focuses on delivering housing supports, health services, and employment opportunities.
“It is estimated that there are 250,000 people experiencing homelessness across Canada, and that number is growing,” Blue Door CEO Michael Braithwaite said during a Dec. 11 presentation to Stouffville’s council. “We’re also facing a lot of hidden homelessness with people who simply can’t pay the rent.”
Braithwaite detailed how Blue Door and its regional partners are supporting a growing number of community members who work full time. He highlighted recent analysis underscoring the significant affordability gap faced by those earning minimum wage.
“Because of the affordability crisis, 1 in 10 across the GTA are accessing food banks,” he said. “The pressure is here, the landscape has changed... We need to take some big swings to get the affordable housing we need.”
One such initiative is Blue Door’s Housing for All Land Trust, which aims to deliver new affordable units while preserving existing below-market dwellings throughout York Region.
The yrust seeks to raise funds for acquiring, creating, and maintaining affordable housing stock. It will also act as a liaison between developers, municipal governments, and housing operators to help realize new units and ensure they remain permanently affordable.
Efforts will also focus on retaining existing affordable units. As dwellings are brought under the trust’s umbrella, they would be protected from redevelopment, renovation, or ownership changes that often result in the loss of affordable rentals.
“We have less affordable housing across the country now than we did in 2015. New builds are great, but...for every affordable new build, we lose 11 to 15 to crumbling infrastructure or people buying and fixing them up, and they’re no longer affordable. It’s a business,” Braithwaite explained.
“The idea is to see if we can get land, units of housing, vacant homes, and different partners—like municipalities, private developers, non-profits, or faith communities that have land or homes and don’t know what to do with them when they’re not being used to full capacity—into the Trust,” Braithwaite said. “Then you build deeply affordable housing that we keep into perpetuity.”
He was joined in council chambers by Blue Door’s director of quality, compliance, and evaluation, Adrianna Vanderneut, who has been tasked with operating the land trust.
Donations and funding would also support the trust’s operations and enhance its purchasing power, enabling further land acquisitions for community-owned development projects.
As the trust grows, it could strategically sell assets to fund the purchase of additional housing. Larger developments could also incorporate a mix of market-rate and deeply affordable units, with proceeds from the former subsidizing the latter.
Blue Door is seeking commitments from five local municipalities to collaborate with the trust and deliver 500 affordable dwellings over the next five years. During his presentation, Braithwaite urged council to direct town staff to work with Blue Door and the land trust on the initiative.
That collaboration could involve outreach to developers asking them to provide units in future projects or identifying lands that could be allocated to the trust. “We’re looking for a commitment to be a part of the trust in the spring,” Braithwaite said. “Not with land or units in hand, but just a hard commitment to come on-board.”
Mayor Iain Lovatt thanked Braithwaite for his presentation and pledged to personally engage the development community. “This is a much-needed vision for York Region,” Lovatt said. “We’re not going to solve the housing crisis in five years, but we can certainly make a difference in the lives of 500 people.”
In a unanimous vote, Braithwaite’s deputation was received and referred to staff for future consideration of how the town can partner with the land trust.
Randy Barba is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter at Bullet Point News Stouffville
