Some Yorkville homeowners upset by proposed 11-storey long-term care home addition
Planned addition to Belmont House would add more than 200 LTC spaces as province faces shortage
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned 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 faces 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 tackle a growing crisis and decrease Ontario's waitlist.
"It's a win across the board," said Mark Richardson, technical lead at HousingNowTO. "We need 9,000 long-term care beds just within the city of Toronto alone. This is an option to reuse a space."
Ontario's population is aging fast, he said, and extra LTC space is needed wherever it can be found.
A 2024 report conducted by health economists found the number of people aged 75 and up in the province is expected to rise by 350,000 by 2029.
Some want addition moved to other part of property
But the plan has drawn heavy opposition, particularly from people living on Belmont Street.
At last week's council meeting, many neighbouring residents raised concerns that the new build would slow traffic during construction, remove green space and bring unwanted shade onto other houses on the street. Several said the addition was also out of character with the historic homes in the neighbourhood.
"This building is big, ugly and has no business being built so close to residential homes," Scott Cameron, a homeowner on Belmont Street, told council at the Jan. 14 meeting.
The ABC Residents Association, a volunteer group in the Yorkville neighbourhood, wrote a letter to city planner Carl Geiger on behalf of concerned homeowners in December, asking that the addition be built on another part of the Belmont House property, away from residential housing.
"We are concerned that the input from nearby residents about the significant impacts and possible alternatives to the current proposal have not been fully appreciated or addressed," co-chairs Ian Carmichael and John Caliendo wrote in the letter.
They say the addition should be built on the Davenport Avenue side of the Belmont House grounds. But the city, and the lead architect, say that's not possible.
Pros outweigh cons, say councillor, care home's CEO
Architect Robert Davies of Montgomery Sisam, the firm leading the project, told council that the current plan was the only feasible option for adding more beds.
Davies said the firm has been studying the site since 2002 to see how more LTC beds can be added, and the current plan is the only one that fits all Ministry of Long-Term Care requirements while also fitting into the existing operations of the facility.
Belmont House CEO Maria Elias told council that relocating the addition to another part of the property would also cost tens of millions of dollars and require existing operations to shut down during construction.
Elias said there is a "desperate" need for more space at the facility, which has a waitlist of roughly 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 feel that we have listened to the needs and concerns of our neighbours," she said, adding that the home earlier declined the province's request to make the addition 15 storeys tall, and would make a new garden that's part of the design accessible to the public.
"But we feel that those inconveniences are well worth the benefits that we bring back to the community," she said.
Elias said the population in the community skews older and adding more space would give more seniors in the city a chance to age in place.
"As a charitable organization with land in downtown Toronto, we feel that it's our obligation to take a look at meeting the changing needs of the community that we serve," she said.
Coun. Dianne Saxe, who represents University-Rosedale, where the LTC home is located, agreed.
"It's enormously important both to seniors and their families to have long-term care beds where people live so that your friends and family can visit you," Saxe said in an interview.
The proposal will go before city council for final approval on Feb. 15.
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With files from Julia Knope