In Yorkville, affordable housing got a brand new look through an innovative partnership between St. Clare’s Housing, Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera.
Andrea Adams, executive director of St. Clare’s Housing, says her organization is working to fight the “not in my backyard” attitude towards affordable housing that some residents in Yorkville have since it’s one of Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods, and luxury and designer stores dot most streets.
In response, St. Clare’s, a charity that provides affordable mixed-income housing in downtown Toronto, launched a performance arts space in the basement level of 877 Yonge St., one of its buildings, to make affordable housing more desirable to locals.
Over the past decade, Adams says she’s seen a shift in the way Torontonians view affordable housing, as people here are becoming more aware of the need for increased supply and affordability, especially for those who are struggling.
“Intellectually, they concede that we need more of it,” she explains. “But emotionally, with their hearts, people are having trouble welcoming that into their neighbourhoods.”
“So, if we can associate affordable housing with good things — that we enhance neighbourhoods, that we add lift to the streetscape — that is a good storyline.”
A City of Toronto report says there were over 100,000 people on the waitlist for affordable housing last year.
Meanwhile, a 2023 study on homeowner politics and housing supply says policymakers’ decisions around large housing projects can be impacted by homeowner opposition. Some have concerns about new residents not fitting in, increasing crime rates, lowered property values and strained infrastructure, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
St. Clare’s has been running the affordable housing project at 877 Yonge St. since 2021. In March, it opened the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre in partnership with Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera.
The two groups were based in the Distillery District for over two decades. At the end of 2021, they were given a notice by the Distillery District to move out by summer 2022, along with 70 other artists and arts groups.
Around the same time, St. Clare’s Housing had the unique idea of inviting artists to use 877 Yonge’s basement floor to fill the building with art.
Ian Carmichael, co-president of the Avenue Bay Cottingham Residents Association (ABCRA), says his group’s initial reaction to the affordable housing project was “cautiously supportive.”
“Clearly, there’s a huge need for supportive housing in the city of Toronto. It’s a big building. We knew they could make a big impact. So, we were sort of waiting and seeing,” he explains.
Eventually, ABCRA supported the affordable housing project at 877 Yonge St. by funding the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.
“We have the vertical community of 250 tenants upstairs, and then we have the kind of horizontal community of Rosedale, which is adjacent, and Yorkville, which is adjacent,” says Andrea Donaldson, artistic director of Nightwood Theatre.
“But I think we’re really feeling like we are kind of a buffer zone to bring both of those communities together simultaneously, and to really [help] destigmatize what it means to live in mixed-income housing,” she explains. “So, when you come [to] in the threshold of the building, there’s no shame factor. This is a building to be celebrated.”
