2-20 Glazebrook Avenue, March 2024
A CBC News story this week spotlights an idea gaining quiet traction close to home: using a row of vacant upscale houses on Glazebrook Avenue, near Bayview & Eglinton, as temporary housing for refugee and low-income families while a stalled redevelopment waits for approvals.
The proposal involves housing advocate David Walsh, the FCJ Refugee Centre, and Geoff Kettel of the Leaside Residents Association, who has been pushing City Hall to think more creatively about empty homes sitting in planning limbo. Local Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin describes the concept as “interesting,” but also raises practical questions around liability, resources, and whether the City is realistically positioned to broker such arrangements.
It’s an undeniably compassionate idea — but also a reminder that good intentions often collide with legal, financial, and administrative realities. Whether this becomes a pilot project or remains aspirational depends largely on the property owner and the City’s willingness to step into unfamiliar territory.
👉 Read the full CBC article here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/housing-refugees-developer-9.7012473