08/2025
CivicAction’s New Report Exposes How We Created a System That Made Affordability Impossible – And How We Can Fix It
TORONTO, ON – August 14, 2025 – In the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), even a $100,000 salary – enough to land someone on Ontario’s Sunshine List – no longer guarantees access to a suitable, affordable home. But according to a new report from CivicAction, the bigger problem isn’t just the numbers. It’s the system.
The report, Cracking the Code of Affordable Housing for Workers, reveals that middle-income earners like nurses, tradespeople, teachers, and transit drivers are being priced out of the communities they serve – not simply because of rising prices, but because of decades of well-intended decisions that built a housing system where affordability is mathematically impossible.
“The housing market isn’t broken – it’s working exactly as it was designed,” said CivicAction CEO, Leslie Woo. “A zoning bylaw from 1975 is making a 2025 project financially impossible. Delays, charges, and risk premiums add up. Every stakeholder may have acted rationally, but no one was optimizing for affordability.”
The mathematics of impossibility
CivicAction’s new “Housing Affordability Formula” lays bare the system failures. For instance, in a conservative sample of a 200-unit rental project, system inefficiencies (approval delays, development charges, financing premiums) add costs up to $206,000 per unit, 2.5 times more than the land itself ($80,000 comparatively).
These inefficiencies bring break-even rents to $3,824/month, far out of reach for most of the region’s middle-income earners. A decade ago, the report estimates, a nurse who could afford 25% of the housing supply can now afford just 8%.
We built it – we can rebuild it
The report is clear: the system isn’t immutable. A coordinated redesign could reduce costs, cutting rents by $1,200 per month and making housing accessible again for middle-income earners.
“Since we built this system, we can rebuild it again,” says one of the report’s co-authors, Jeanhy Shim. “The same collaborative approach that created the problem can solve it – but this time with affordability as the goal.”
The report proposes cost-savings improvements that together can contribute to a $1,200/month rent reduction in the 200-unit project example, bringing rents down to $2,579/month.
And if we don’t? The report cautions that without urgent system reform, the region risks losing more of its essential workforce – 67.7% are already considering leaving and suffering $5.88–$7.98 billion in annual economic losses. Additionally, frontline services would deteriorate as nurses, teachers, and first responders are pushed out of the region.
“The solution is to intentionally design a system where affordability is possible in the first place,” said Woo. “The good news is that the Toronto region has demonstrated its capacity to solve complex challenges before. And if we collaborate, we can do it again for affordable workforce housing.”
The report is the second in CivicAction’s four-part “Call-to-Action” research series examining workforce housing solutions through its TD Housing Affordability Leader-in-Residence Program, generously supported by TD Bank Group. Through its Housing Affordability Collaborative, CivicAction is mobilizing non-profits, financial institutions, developers, and governments to implement the coordinated approach the research prescribes.
Links:
- First report: The Human Story of Workforce Housing
- Second report: Cracking the Code of Affordable Housing for Workers
Media Contact:
Direct all media inquiries and interview requests with Leslie Woo and CivicAction experts to media@civicaction.ca.
About CivicAction
CivicAction is a catalyst for positive change, turning collaboration into action to build livable, inclusive cities in the GTHA. Through the CivicAction Leadership Foundation, we support programs that open doors for emerging and underrepresented leaders. Mission: Affordable is CivicAction’s campaign mobilizing collective action to fix the region’s workforce housing crisis. Learn more at MissionAffordable.ca.