The Math of Misery: Why 217 New Units Won't Fix Toronto's Housing Collapse
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City officials are celebrating a new affordable rental project in Etobicoke, but the scale of the delivery remains a fraction of what a city of three million actually requires.
OPINION: A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on September 10, 2026, as KingSett Capital Affordable Housing LP, the Government of Canada, and the City of Toronto marked the opening of 217 affordable rental homes located at 15 Gibbs Rd. in Etobicoke. On paper, the project is a success. In reality, it is a drop in the bucket.
According to a City of Toronto news release, these units are part of a larger mixed-income, mixed-use redevelopment called West Square. Once the project is fully realized, it will provide a total of 1,135 homes, consisting of 788 market rental units and 347 affordable rental units. The City notes that these affordable homes—which range from studios to three-bedroom units—will maintain their affordability for at least 40 years.
To make this happen, the City of Toronto provided roughly $11.9 million in financial incentives to support the project's first phase. These incentives, delivered through the Rental Housing Supply Program (RHSP), included property tax exemptions and exemptions from development-related charges. The RHSP is designed to advance the city's HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan.
While the partnership between KingSett Capital, the federal government, and the city is presented as a model for increasing rental options, the sheer scale of the crisis dwarfs these efforts. The City of Toronto describes itself as the fourth largest city in North America, home to more than three million people. For a population of that size, the addition of 217 units—or even the 347 promised in the full West Square development—fails to move the needle on systemic affordability.
City officials attempt to frame this as part of a larger momentum, stating that there are currently 50 affordable housing projects under construction across the city. These projects are expected to create over 14,000 new homes, with more than 4,200 of those being affordable rentals.
Even when aggregating these figures, the math remains grim. If the city's current pipeline of affordable rental construction is capped at roughly 4,200 units, it represents a negligible percentage of the housing needs for a metropolis of three million residents. The celebration at 15 Gibbs Rd. provides essential stability for the low- and moderate-income households who secure those specific keys, but for the thousands remaining on waitlists, the West Square project is a reminder that the city is fighting a forest fire with a garden hose.