Toronto is now giving out free pre-approved designs for laneway and garden suites

Laneway suites and garden suites were supposed to be potent tools in the fight for greater housing affordability. But, since they became legal in 2018 and 2022, respectively, reports show that only 166 laneway suites and 114 garden suites have been built. Considering the high demand from homeowners, cost and approval times seem to be the main culprits behind the lack of construction. In response, Mayor Olivia Chow and the city have released free designs for these tiny new homes. Compliant with Ontario’s building code, they streamline the process for applicants and axe the need to hire an architect.

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“It’s simple,” Chow said at a city hall press conference last week. “Toronto is growing, and we must lower the cost of building homes. We must approve them faster.”

But, for housing advocates like Stephanie Bertolo, a board member with More Neighbours Toronto, the move represents another small step in a housing strategy that isn’t keeping pace with the problem. “Toronto is taking a really incremental approach to making it easier to build housing across the city, but we’re the epicentre of Canada’s housing crisis,” she says. “We don’t have time to be debating these small changes that will only create a few homes across the city. We need to be taking bigger and bolder action to reforming how we build.”

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Bertolo adds that the city should be trying to convert more single-family homes into multiplexes to foster the creation of denser neighbourhoods. After all, making it easier to build a single additional unit on someone’s private property doesn’t contribute much given the major scale of the housing shortage. A recent city report found that Toronto’s homeless population had more than doubled in three years, exceeding 15,400 people last fall.