How to make affordable housing desirable by using arts
THE GREEN LINE
ORIGINAL STORY
How tO MAKE AFFORDABLE HOUSING DESIRABLE BY USING ARTS
The Green Line team visited 877 Yonge St. to learn how St. Clare's Housing, Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera are using the arts to combat stigma around affordable housing.
Andrea Adams, executive director of St. Clare’s Housing, stands outside 877 Yonge St., a unique housing project that hosts a performance centre in the basement.
: ANTHONY LIPPA-HARDY/The Green Line.
Amanda Seraphina James Rajakumar
Indian immigrant with a post-grad in journalism from Centennial College. Now living in Grange Park, meeting new people, and hearing different stories. Has four names, so it’s a pick-your-player situation.
April 4, 2025
TIPS ON FIGHTING NIMBYISM FROM ST. CLARE'S:
- Use arts to combat stigma. St. Clare's Housing used the basement level of 877 Yonge St. to open the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.
- Invite artists that share the vision. The centre was launched in partnership with Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera.
- Reach out to your local councillors. University-Rosedale Counc. Dianne Saxe helped bring in funds from local associations.
- Involve local associations in the project. The Avenue Bay Cottingham Residents Association helped fund the performance centre.
- The performance centre helps brings local residents and building residents together.
What comes to mind when you think of supportive and affordable housing in Toronto?
Low-income neighbourhoods, lack of infrastructure and higher crime rates?
One organization is trying to change that narrative. In Yorkville, affordable housing got a brand new look through an innovative partnership between St. Clare’s Housing, Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera.
Andrea Adams, executive director of St. Clare’s Housing, says her organization is working to fight the "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) attitude towards affordable housing that some residents in Yorkville have since it’s one of Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods, where luxury and designer stores dot most streets.
(For the uninitiated, NIMBYism is when people hold negative attitudes or stereotypes about the people who live in affordable housing or use emergency shelters, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.)
In response, St. Clare’s, a charity that provides affordable mixed-income housing in downtown Toronto, launched a performance arts space in the basement level of 877 Yonge St., one of its buildings, to make affordable housing more desirable to locals.
877 Yonge St. is an affordable housing project run by St. Clare’s Housing. The Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre is in located on its basement floor.
: Daniel Frechette for The Green Line.
Over the past decade, Adams says she’s seen a shift in the way Torontonians view affordable housing, as people are becoming more aware of the need for increased supply and affordability, especially for those who are struggling.
“Intellectually, they concede that we need more of it,” she explains. “But emotionally, with their hearts, people are having trouble welcoming that into their neighbourhoods.”
"So, if we can associate affordable housing with good things — that we enhance neighbourhoods, that we add lift to the streetscape — that is a good storyline.”
Adams adds that integrating arts with affordable housing offers the opportunity for building residents and other locals in Yorkville to come together since the arts are a shared joy that all income levels can benefit from.
Tapestry Opera artists rehearse for their first show at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre at 877 Yonge St., which seats 200 people.
: Amanda Seraphina/The Green Line.
A City of Toronto report says there were over 100,000 people on the waitlist for affordable housing last year.
Meanwhile, a 2023 study on homeowner politics and housing supply says policymakers' decisions around large housing projects can be impacted by homeowner opposition. Some have concerns about new residents not fitting in, increasing crime rates, lowered property values and strained infrastructure, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
St. Clare’s has been running the affordable housing project at 877 Yonge St. since 2021. In March, it opened the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre in partnership with Nightwood Theatre and Tapestry Opera.
Tapestry Opera’s final performance at the Distillery District in 2022 before they were asked to move out.
: Dahlia katz/Tapestry Opera.
The two groups were based in the Distillery District for over two decades. At the end of 2021, despite having a letter from Artscape in 2018 that secured a five-year tenancy, they were given a notice by the Distillery District to move out by summer 2022, along with 70 other artists and arts groups.
Around the same time, St. Clare's Housing had the unique idea of inviting artists to use 877 Yonge's basement floor to fill the building with art.
Ian Carmichael, co-president of the Avenue Bay Cottingham Residents Association (ABCRA), says his group’s initial reaction to the affordable housing project was “cautiously supportive.”
“Clearly, there's a huge need for supportive housing in the city of Toronto. It's a big building. We knew they could make a big impact. So, we were sort of waiting and seeing,” he explains.
Ian Carmichael, co-president of the Avenue Bay Cottingham Residents’ Association, stands outside 877 Yonge St.
: Anthony Lippa-Hardy/The Green Line.
Eventually, ABCRA supported the affordable housing project at 877 Yonge St. by funding the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.
Carmichael says University-Rosedale Coun. Dianne Saxe approached the residents association and asked if it would be willing to use community aid money to help restore 877 Yonge’s basement floor, which would host artists.
“We thought about it for about five seconds and [said], 'Absolutely! What a great use of community money.’”
Andrea Donaldson, artistic director of Nightwood Theatre, says both her theatre and Tapestry Opera have been trying to move away from the concept of the arts being exclusively for wealthy people.
“We have the vertical community of 250 tenants upstairs, and then we have the kind of horizontal community of Rosedale, which is adjacent, and Yorkville, which is adjacent," she explains. “But I think we're really feeling like we are kind of a buffer zone to bring both of those communities together simultaneously, and to really [help] destigmatize what it means to live in mixed-income housing.”
“So, when you come [to] in the threshold of the building, there's no shame factor. This is a building to be celebrated.”
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