Facing an affordable housing crisis in Mississauga and the spectre of poor families being displaced by a new $1.3 billion light rail system, council has moved to force developers to build a minimum number of units for low-income residents in all future projects.

“This line of blue along Hurontario (St.) is what’s freaking me out,” Councillor Carolyn Parrish told colleagues at Wednesday’s meeting. She was referring to a map of the city that showed where the highest concentration of low income families live, highlighted in blue, right along the new LRT’s route on Hurontario.

“That is where the people who need the LRT are living now, and they’re all going to get pushed out.”

Parrish said the province’s $1.3 billion funding commitment to build the LRT will have the effect of “displacing” the people who need transit most. She authored a motion that passed unanimously Wednesday, asking staff to report back by January on a plan that will mandate a minimum number of affordable housing units in future buildings, with a focus on the Hurontario corridor.

Council members, including Mayor Bonnie Crombie, were in agreement, that the LRT will likely see lower priced apartment buildings along Hurontario replaced by much more expensive condos and rental units, as property values are already skyrocketing.

Councillor Nando Iannicca, whose ward includes much of the LRT corridor, said properties are already going for $4 million to $5 million an acre, more than tripling from the price five years ago.

Councillor Pat Saito said the 10 per cent figure that was discussed as a possible minimum number of future units designated for affordable housing is too low, considering that 18 per cent of the city’s residents are living below the poverty line and wait times for affordable housing are currently among the longest in the province, with 12,000 households currently on the list.

Paula Torres, who has lived in one of the lower priced open market rental apartments right on Hurontario for 21 years, said she gave up on trying to find affordable housing assistance after 14 years on the list.

“My child is grown up, so let’s give the opportunity to another person,” she told council, explaining why she took herself off the wait list for affordable housing five years ago. But now she fears the $1,075 she pays monthly for rent, not including hydro, will be a thing of the past, once old buildings like hers are soon replaced by high-rent towers along the LRT corridor.

“I don’t have the income to purchase or rent in the buildings that will replace the ones along Hurontario now,” said Torres, who lives with her son and her elderly mother, describing the minimum wage jobs she’s been forced to accept since moving from Panama in 1990.

“I have good transit right now, every 10 minutes. But when they take us out of there, where will we go? We won’t have the same access to transit. If I go, say farther west, I will have to wait half-hour, or worse for transit.”

Iannicca and Councillor Ron Starr raised concerns that a mandated minimum requirement for the number of total units designated for affordable housing — as much as 20 per cent has been mentioned in council — could scare builders away.

“Who’s going to pay the freight?” asked Starr, though he supported the motion. Builders often pass on additional costs, such as increased development charges, to home buyers and renters on the open market.

The motion that passed Wednesday states the city will go to the province and the federal government to seek funding that could possibly be used to subsidize units designated for affordable housing.

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Crombie said she was very supportive of the motion, as her booming city continues to deal with its affordable housing crisis.

“We want to take action.”

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