I’ve been public about adding a unit to Weston’s housing stock by converting my garage into Chandlerville, my 550 sq ft custom home, and renting out my main house. I’ve reported, as did the Toronto Star in their March story, the $500K I spent on the project. Some Star readers were aggrieved at the price tag, accusing me of being a rich lawyer and pointing out the pointlessness of a by-law that doesn’t allow most people to participate. I agree. They’re not inexpensive and so, as with any other construction, building a laneway suite, garden suite, or any other kind of accessory dwelling unit (or ADU as they’re known) won’t be for everyone. But maybe they should be open to more people if we are going to make a dent in this housing crisis.

When the City of Toronto passed the ADU by-law in 2018, they tried to address the affordability of building them by offering homeowners a forgivable loan of $50,000 if units were rented at below-market rents for 15 years. The Star reported in January that because the uptake was embarrassingly low - only 12 homeowners applied - the program was cancelled. With construction costs high, the small grant meant the math just doesn’t work. 

So when Canada’s April budget, “Fairness for Every Generation” included reference to ADUs, I got excited. What incentives would they provide to help Canadians address the housing shortage in this way? Well, not much as it turns out. They’re offering $40K in a low interest loan to “unlock new housing supply” to support the goal homeowners have to “bring in a new tenant, or build a space for family members to live close by” with the intended outcome to “help increase density to make the most of available space in communities across the country.” All good words, but not a meaningful change to the math. Anyone with an ADU in mind, will have to have motivations other than purely financial. 

It got me back into my mental Rolodex of other lanewayers to find someone else who’d made the investment, as I have, for a bundle of reasons, with the financial payoff being more of a long-term aspiration. 

I met Geoff and Tamar when Geoff appeared on a panel with me at the Home Show in March.  They have owned their mid-town Toronto house for nearly 20 years. As a professional planner in a suburban municipality outside of Toronto, Geoff was watching others push Toronto’s Council to enact a by-law that would allow for laneway suites. But only after the law came into force, making ADUs as of right for laneway homeowners who met certain requirements, did he consider it for himself. Shovelling snow from the parking pad to park at the back of their property was becoming tedious, and they’d been mulling over building a garage that would also allow them to plug in the EV they’d planned to get. The idea snowballed from there. If a garage, and there’s a by-law that allows it, why not build a rental suite on the top of it? 

Like me, but unlike many who’ve thought about laneway suites, this couple are realistic with their expectations. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Instead, they’re creating a unit of housing at a time when it’s needed more than ever and that may one day house their son. 

When they started building in 2021, they looked at - and dismissed - the City’s grant program. To qualify, the rent would have to be set too low for the project to make sense. Fifty thousand would have been just less than 20% of the total contractor’s bill for their project and about 13% of mine, not enough to make it worthwhile.

The building itself was on balance a positive experience for Geoff and Tamar, despite an over-poured foundation delaying completion of the project. They got a permit quite easily and were able to achieve their goal of heating by heat pump instead of gas - something I’d hoped for but in the end, one of the areas where I had to compromise.  

When asked about their satisfaction with the result, Geoff reports being very happy with how it turned out. It’s a nice solid structure containing a one bedroom unit on the 2nd floor with space in the ground floor for their electric car. They are very pleased with the reliable tenant whom they found easily when it was ready for occupancy last August. Like I am, Geoff’s looking forward to seeing others on his laneway following his lead making it its own little community between the streets. 

Geoff takes his role as a member of the laneway suite community seriously, though, and has created and maintains an online map for others to monitor open and closed ADU permits across Toronto. Marrying two of his interests, urban planning and open data, the map began as a COVID project. He keeps it updated now as he can and I use it every time I see a new build in my community to see the status of the permit. Take a look here - I’m proud to say I live in the only completed laneway suite in the northwest of the City! 

Will the recently announced $40K low interest loan from the feds make a difference to people like Geoff and Tamar, or like me? Geoff reports he certainly would have explored the possibility, as I would have too. But will it open the door to even more potential lanewayers? It remains to be seen. If anyone wants to talk to me about my experience, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Build on, I say! 

(above, Geoff, another laneway suiter, and I discuss our projects at the National Homeshow in March; below, photos of Geoff & Tamar’s completed mid-town laneway suite)

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