A Parking Lot's Worth of Progress: Why 74 Units Won't Fix Toronto's Housing Crisis

On August 24, 2026, the City of Toronto, CreateTO, and the Government of Canada gathered to celebrate the start of construction at 1113–1125 Dundas St. W. As the City of Toronto first reported, this development at Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue will provide 74 rent-controlled residences, featuring a minimum of 17 affordable units. While the City frames this as a victory for sustainable urban development, anyone tracking the affordability crisis knows that 74 units is a drop in the bucket.

Let's be clear: this is an opinion piece. While I applaud the use of low-carbon mass timber and geothermal energy—and the fact that over 40 per cent of these units are two- or three-bedroom homes—we cannot mistake a single building for a systemic solution. The City is touting its "Public Developer" model, which transforms underutilized municipal assets, like the former parking lot at this site, into non-market housing. But when you weigh 74 units against the scale of the crisis, the math simply doesn't add up.

According to a City of Toronto news release, the HousingTO Plan has a target to deliver 65,000 new rent-controlled homes by 2030. This includes 41,000 affordable rentals, 17,500 rent-controlled homes, and 6,500 rent-geared-to-income units. To put this in perspective, the 74 units at Dundas and Ossington represent roughly 0.11% of that 2030 goal. While Mayor Olivia Chow claims this project helps build the housing Toronto needs so people can afford to live here, the sheer disparity between the target and the delivery suggests we are treating a hemorrhage with a adhesive bandage.

Even the officials involved seem to be operating on different scales of reality. Danielle Martin, Member of Parliament for University–Rosedale, called the project a "win" for the community and a way to build homes faster. Ana Bailão, President and CEO of Build Canada Homes, described the collaboration as an example of achieving impact through ambition and purpose. However, ambition is not measured by a single groundbreaking; it is measured by the ability to scale these efforts across the entire city.

To its credit, the project involves a professional Canadian team, including Pomerleau Construction, Moriyama Teshima Architects, and Montgomery Sisam Architects. It is a well-designed, sustainable project. But the City is using this as a political photo-op to signal progress while the systemic deficit remains largely untouched. CreateTO claims to have more than 5,000 homes under construction on City-owned lands, yet the focus on a 74-unit site as a headline-grabbing event underscores a desperate need for larger, more aggressive interventions.

We don't need more "first projects" under new models; we need a flood of housing. Until the City can move beyond the symbolic transformation of a few parking lots into modest developments, these announcements will continue to feel less like a solution and more like a distraction from the staggering mountain of homes still required to make Toronto livable for the working class.