Premier Doug Ford praised the idea of building tiny homes as an alternative to homeless encampments while visiting Kitchener Thursday morning.
"I think it's great," he said, responding to a report who'd asked about building tiny homes to help get people out of encampments. "I like watching that show, Tiny Homes, too. They're really creative."
It's not clear if he was referring to HGTV's "Tiny House, Big Living," HGTV's "Tiny House Hunters," HGTV's "Tiny Luxury," "Tiny House Nation" on Netflix, or the entire sub-genre of tiny home reality television.
Regardless, Kitchener is home to A Better Tent City, a community of small cabins that houses 50 people, run by a registered charity.
"There's so many different options," Ford continued. "You know, the modular homes are good, too. They're less expensive. I call them the starter homes, tiny homes."
The Ford government is working on a provincial plan for modular housing and has appointed the first associate minister responsible for attainable and modular homes, Rob Flack.
But that plan won't be focused on people who are homeless, Ford's housing minister said later on Thursday.
"There are other supports," Paul Calandra said at Queen's Park, giving the province's recent decision to remove development charges from affordable housing as an example.
The strategy is focused on developing an industry for factory-built, or modular homes, to catch up with other jurisdictions, he said. It will leverage provincially-owned and municipally-owned lands to keep costs down, and include a partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
That's what the premier was talking about when he made a promise at FordFest in Kitchener last year that there would be 1,600-square-foot homes with backyards, driveways and finished basements available for $500,000 under a forthcoming provincial plan, according to Calandra.
"We're gonna get that job done," he added.
