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Growing population in Toronto and Hamilton need housing’s ‘missing middle,’ report says
(Toronto Star, Tess Kalinowski, Dec 11 2018)

The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region could be short 165,600 homes by 2041 if it doesn’t rightsize its housing supply to give families more space and build places that will induce seniors to downsize. Failure to do so could skew the population to an older demographic and impede its prosperity by discouraging younger, skilled workers, says a new study...

The risk of not reaching the 7,200 homes a year the growth plan suggests are needed would equate to a $1.95-billion loss in GDP connected to housing construction, says the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA).

Only 15 per cent of the region’s homes are the lowrise apartments and townhomes, a housing category known as the “missing middle,” that provide affordable alternatives to the polarized mix of highrises and single-detached houses that dominate Toronto’s housing mix, says the study prepared by CANCEA for the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO).