Nearly a year after City Council approved Toronto's Affordable Housing Plan, which pledged the City-led development of five municipally-owned sites, plans have been submitted for a second site, at 35 Bellevue Avenue.

The application was submitted in late-September, just days after plans for another City-led affordable housing initiative at 11 Brock Avenue were submitted, signalling promising advances in the creation of permanent affordable housing for Toronto's vulnerable.

Currently, the 26,479-sq.-ft lot is home to a Green P Parking lot in the Kensington Market neighbourhood, in close proximity to the St. Patrick Subway Station and a number of streetcar routes. Once completed, the development will consist of a four-storey building offering 78 rent-geared-to-income units, meaning rents will not exceed 30% of a resident’s income.

The project is being headed by the City's Corporate Real Estate Management in partnership with Toronto's Modular Housing Initiative — a program intended to build hundreds of modular homes across numerous City-owned lands, according to the application's cover letter. "This supportive housing project is designed to support people who are currently experiencing homelessness and will help people move out of the shelter system," says the letter.

Available to future tenants will be shared laundry, a communal kitchen, and programming spaces. Plus, the private apartments will contain bathrooms and kitchens for personal use. The unit breakdown is 55 studio units, with 16 being barrier-free, and three one-bedroom units, with 4 being barrier-free.

Additionally, tenants will be able to enjoy an 1,130-sq.-ft internal courtyard with trees, seating areas, and a BBQ patio, as well as a bicycle storage area with 71 long-term parking spots.

35 Bellevue/Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc.

35 Bellevue/Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc.

35 Bellevue/Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc.

Designed by Toronto-based Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc., the building features the use of mass timber, "a building material that is a renewable resource and has a lower carbon footprint than concrete," according to a fact sheet supplied by the City. The building will also boast green roofs and net zero greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with the City’s TransformTO Net Zero Strategy.

Once completed, the planned development at 35 Bellevue Avenue will be leased and operated by the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT) and St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society (St. Clare’s).

35 Bellevue, along with the four other City-owned sites designated for affordable housing, represent a valiant effort to combat Toronto’s growing homelessness problem and the overall housing crisis through a trail-blazing public development model — though, as Mayor Chow told STOREYS in an interview back in October 2023, government funding is imperative to the success of these projects and the affordable housing plan as a whole.

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