Sisters save affordable housing in Toronto's east end

Catholic New Times, May 9, 2004

TORONTO -- A couple of dozen nuns scored a decisive victory at Toronto City Hall on April 16, after Council voted in favour of their affordable housing project. Earlier it had been stymied by a last-minute proposal for park space.

Over five years, the group of Catholic women, led by the Sisters of St. Joseph, along with Habitat for Humanity, raised $2.3 million in private donations and developed a plan with the City to construct 90 affordable housing units in Toronto's east end. The project intended to see low-density housing purchased by low-income families in the area.

However, the group's project was opposed by environmentalists and newly elected councillor Gay Cowbourne in Community Council. City officials were then told it was 'green-space' issue. Anti-poverty activists maintained it was another case of NIMBYism (Not in My Backyard), a prevalent attitude--one of property value protection--which city housing experts say stonewalls official efforts to develop affordable housing in Toronto.

"We're not politicians and that makes things very difficult for the likes of us," the project's leader, Sister Margaret Myatt, CSJ said at that point. "You just think, how are other non-profit groups going to take up the cause of affordable hot, sing if this is what you have to go through? It's very disconcerting."

Ownership is the best way for poor families to "start to advance and contribute to society in a meaningful way," the group said.

Construction of the units is now expected to begin in one year.