Mayoral Candidate Anthony Perruzza presented his smart housing solutions to do better than the city’s current hotel shelter system that is a bad deal for the city: millions of dollars wasted, inadequate shelter, and only hotel owners benefitting.

“We need to do better for people who need shelter. We need to do things smarter in Toronto,” said Perruzza.  “Using hotel rooms for shelters is an expensive, temporary, stop gap measure that isn’t working for people on the streets, and it has costed the City near $1 billion in the last three years.”

“As Mayor, I will encourage built-form housing projects that are responsive to the needs of people seeking shelter.  It is a more humane, more affordable solution that will provide a home with services for people, not just shelters.  Smart cities build infrastructure to solve problems.”

Perruzza’s Smart Housing solution will:

-Provide City of Toronto land sites on long-term leases

-Facilitate further cost-savings for builders of affordable homes through property tax breaks and city fee breaks

-Involve CMHC for loan guarantees to further reduce the costs of building.

Perruzza held his press conference in front of the Novotel Toronto Centre to point out that the City of Toronto has spent $1 billion in an expensive system of temporary hotel housing that hasn’t resolved homelessness.