A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood has cleared another hurdle to adding much-needed beds to its property, a move applauded by housing advocates but opposed by locals worried about the impact on the neighbourhood.
An 11-storey addition to Belmont House was approved at a Toronto and East York Community Council meeting last week. If approved by Toronto City Council next month, the project will add more than 200 spaces to the facility at a time when Ontario is facing a shortage of more than 40,000 long-term care beds.
Housing advocates say the addition, which will include 168 long-term care beds and 30 assisted living units, will help address the growing crisis and reduce Ontario's waiting lists.
“It's a win-win across the board,” said Mark Richardson, technical lead at Housingnautio. “We need 9,000 long-term care beds within the city of Toronto alone. It's an option to reuse space.”
Ontario's population is aging quickly, he said, and more LTC space is needed where it can be found.
A 2024 report A study by health economists has estimated that the number of people over 75 years of age in this province will increase by 350,000 by 2029.
Some want to add to other parts of the property
But the plan has drawn heavy opposition, particularly from people living on Belmont Street.
At last week's council meeting, several neighborhood residents expressed concern that the new construction would slow traffic during construction, eliminate green space and cast unnecessary shadows on other homes on the street. Many said the addition was also out of character with historic homes in the neighborhood.
“This building is big, ugly and there is no business built near residential homes,” Belmont Street homeowner Scott Cameron told the council at the Jan. 14 meeting.
The ABC Residents Association, a volunteer group in the Yorkville neighborhood, wrote a letter to city planner Carl Geiger in December on behalf of concerned homeowners, asking for the addition to be built on another part of Belmont House, away from residential housing.
“We are concerned that the significant impacts of the current proposal and the input of nearby residents about potential alternatives have not been fully appreciated or addressed,” co-chairs Ian Carmichael and John Calindo wrote in the letter.
They say an additional Belmont House should be built on the Davenport Avenue side of the grounds. But the city and the chief architect say that is not possible.
Care home CEO, Councillor, says the pros outweigh the cons
Architect Robert Davis of Montgomery Sesame, the firm leading the project, told council the current plan is the only viable option for adding more beds.
Davis said the firm has been studying the site since 2002 to see how more LTC beds could be added, and the current plan is the only one that meets all of the long-term care needs and also fits into the facility's existing operations.
Maria Elias, CEO of Belmont House, told the council that even relocating the addition to another part of the property would cost tens of millions of dollars and would require the shutdown of existing operations during construction.
Elias said there is a “desperate” need for more space at the facility, which has a waiting list of about 1,200 people, 180 of whom are in crisis. For years, she said, the province has been asking Belmont House where it could possibly add more beds.
“We think we've heard the needs and concerns of our neighbors,” she said, adding that the house previously rejected the province's request to build an additional 15 stories, and create a new garden that's part of the design. the people
“But we feel those inconveniences are worth the benefits we bring back to the community,” she said.
A new campaign led by health care advocates is calling for Ontario to invest more in home care. They say expanding the province's home care offerings will help reduce hospital wait times and long-term care waiting lists. CBC's Tyler Cheese has the details.
Elias said the community's population is older and adding more space will give more of the city's seniors a chance to age in place.
“As a charity with land in downtown Toronto, we feel we have an obligation to meet the changing needs of the communities we serve,” she said.
Count. Dianne Saxe, who represents University-Rosedale, where the LTC home is located, agreed.
“It's very important for both the elderly and their families to have long-term care beds where people stay so that your friends and family can visit you,” Saxe said in an interview.
The proposal will go to the City Council on February 15 for final approval.
