Youth issues take centre stage in Toronto Housing summit

The discussions will throw light to find unique ways to answer how skyrocketing home prices and rents are impacting youth and young professionals.

Tory said, “If we don't keep our cities affordable, we're giving up on a generation of Canadians who won't be able to both live and work in places like Toronto and Vancouver.”

Nicolas Petraglia, a Torontonian, has a family with two kids. Recently he is invited to make his point in the scheduled roundtables with Mayor Tory.

Although he earns a hefty amount from ScotiaBank, yet upgrading from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom apartment in a neighbourhood in Toronto seems to be a task that is difficult task to accomplish.

“At this point in our economic situation, adding $1,000 into our monthly costs means a bunch of things get thrown out the window. You start thinking about what do I not do. Do we not put our kids into soccer? Do we stop paying for swimming lessons? Do we just not have any savings,” he explains.

Along with Tory some other big city mayors have been continuously lobbying with the federal government to create a national housing strategy. Monday’s meeting is a follow up of a similar summit held on September 30, where Tory met with Edmonton mayor Don Iveson and Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson to discuss the housing rates and affordability issues.

Petraglia believes “all three levels of government” need to work together to make housing more affordable, be it through rent control regulations, support for housing co-ops or “lease to own” plans that don’t require a massive down payment.

He adds, “Housing is what holds together the city. Whether you’re buying a home, renting a home or looking for subsidized housing, at the end of the day Toronto is made up of the people who live here.”

(Reporting by Debarati Mukherjee)