Like many global cities, Toronto is experiencing residential intensification in its downtown core. While development has injected a great vitality to the urban environment, it has also led to a dire crisis of sustainability and affordability for renters and homeowners alike. The majority of contemporary urban construction is concrete high-rise condominiums built on small land parcels. These buildings have small units and high costs due to the price of vertical construction, skilled labour and valuable land. The need for immediate profit means that these types of projects are focused on quick sales turnarounds and speculative ownership, not on building long-term sustainable neighbourhoods.

Unfortunately, the stock of single-family housing in the vicinity of the downtown core is also increasingly out of reach for families due to scarcity relative to market need. Many of the houses are too big to be affordable at current market values, but sit on and within relatively large lots with a great amount of unused space. This inefficient residential mode has been promoted through zoning by-laws that prevent urban residential lands from being redeployed as modestly scaled, affordable, gentle-density apartments and townhouses.

This dichotomy of development has led to a large segment of the population that can neither afford single-family housing in the city, nor wants to sacrifice their quality of life to live in the cramped quarters and elevator-intensive existence of a high-rise condominium.