[URBAN NOTE] "Mississauga aims to prevent LRT from pushing out poor"

[rfmcdonald]

San Grewal at the Toronto Star notes the efforts of Mississauga to prevent that city's new LRT from driving away affordable housing. I think it's open to doubt that enough will be done.

Facing an affordable housing crisis in Mississauga and the spectre of poor families being displaced by a new $1.3 billion light rail system, council has moved to force developers to build a minimum number of units for low-income residents in all future projects.

“This line of blue along Hurontario (St.) is what’s freaking me out,” Councillor Carolyn Parrish told colleagues at Wednesday’s meeting. She was referring to a map of the city that showed where the highest concentration of low income families live, highlighted in blue, right along the new LRT’s route on Hurontario.

“That is where the people who need the LRT are living now, and they’re all going to get pushed out.”

Parrish said the province’s $1.3 billion funding commitment to build the LRT will have the effect of “displacing” the people who need transit most. She authored a motion that passed unanimously Wednesday, asking staff to report back by January on a plan that will mandate a minimum number of affordable housing units in future buildings, with a focus on the Hurontario corridor.

Council members, including Mayor Bonnie Crombie, were in agreement, that the LRT will likely see lower priced apartment buildings along Hurontario replaced by much more expensive condos and rental units, as property values are already skyrocketing.