The American Institute of Architects just presented its 2019 Housing Awards. 12 housing projects were recognized across four categories.

Some of the projects I have written about before -- such as the Tiny Tower in North Philadelphia. But most of the projects haven't been covered on this blog. One of my favorites, among the winners, is the Oak Park Housing project in Sacramento by Johnsen Schamling Architects.

I like that the massing is simple and that it's a dense -- 6 unit -- urban infill project in an area of Sacramento that has been struggling with disinvestment for many decades. According to the architect, it is one of the first residential projects in the neighborhood since the Oak Park Riots of 1969.

Three of the homes front onto the main street. And the other three front onto and are accessed from a rear alley. Each home is just over 1,500 square feet. The project also had "an ambitiously limited construction budget", so let's call it an example of good design not having to necessarily cost a lot of money.

I'm guessing their land costs were reasonable.

Photo: John J. Macaulay

As of August 2018, the City of Toronto has allowed laneway suites (accessory dwelling units) to be built as-of-right in the Toronto and East York area of the city (subject to meeting some criteria).

This was a tremendous step forward for the city. And I know a number of people who are currently taking advantage of these new planning permissions.

Toronto is now looking at expanding these permissions across the entire city and they have just started their community engagement phase. The first public meeting took place today and the next three will be taking place over the course of this month. Click here for the when and where.

This is a natural extension of the policies that have already been put in place around laneway suites and I'm excited to see this moving forward.

For those of you who already own property in Toronto & East York and are considering building a laneway suite, there are two programs that you should be aware of.

The first one allows eligible property owners to defer development charges on the new secondary dwelling unit for up to 20 years. This is meaningful. And the second is a $50k forgivable loan if you make the laneway suite an affordable rental for at least 15 years. (The cap is the City of Toronto Average Market Rent.)

I still remember what happened when I tried to build a laneway house almost 10 years ago. I was told, by the city, that a house cannot be built behind another house. I knew that would change. Now look at how far we've come.

Image: Lanescape

At the end of last month, Toronto City Council adopted the "Housing Now" action plan. The first phase of the plan involves the public marketing of 11 city-owned sites for the purpose of finding non-profit and private sector partners to help redevelop the lands with new mixed-income housing. It is expected that these lands could accommodate about 10,000 homes.

Here is the list of sites:

As part of the offering, around 2/3 of the built units will need to be rental (the above chart shows more), and of these rental units, 50% will need to be affordable with rents set to 80% of Toronto's average market rents. All of this should translate into approximately 3,700 new affordable homes. (Mayor Tory's plan is to build 40,000 affordable rental homes by 2030.)

The City wants to ultimately retain ownership of these lands, and so the sites will be offered up through long-term land leases. It looks like they'll be for 99 years. The City will also be forgiving a number of fees and levies for the 3,700 affordable homes. They are pegging the PV (present value) of these development incentives at just over $280 million:

Making use of surplus public land to increase the supply of affordable housing certainly makes a lot of sense. But there's a cost burden associated with these affordable units, which is why discussions around inclusionary zoning often come back to offsetting measures. Who is going to pay for these subsidies?

The above "financial incentives" -- which in this case are simply foregone revenue -- speak to this cost burden.

Tables: City of Toronto