As home costs soar in Canada's cities, George Brown College is among a growing number of schools looking to put shovels in the ground for staff housing

In a city where home prices have proven merciless and few on a five figure salary can afford to rent or buy a home on their own, it's not just . George Brown College is floating the idea of building its first homes for staff and faculty in the coming years after its , created earlier in 2023, found faculty were feeling the pinch of unaffordability as well.

"We're looking towards planning 20 to 30 years in advance," said Joe Cressy, senior vice president of external relations, communications and real estate development at George Brown. In a series of the college conducted last year, many employees said they needed to move farther away from downtown Toronto to be able to afford to live.

Cressy said the college also heard about long commutes affecting some faculty's decisions to relocate. "When we talk about the need to ensure workers can afford to live in this city, that is not just a talent recruitment principle, but it's a talent retention principle," he said.

Toronto rents have ballooned in recent years. In December 2018, the average one bedroom unit listed on was $2,135 — a price that required a household to make around $85,000 to comfortably afford their bills. A couple of months ago, that average was $2,615, requiring at least $105,000. Some professors and instructors earn between about $60,000 and $100,000, according to online job site Glassdoor.

, as well. The average price of a home in November was $1.08 million compared to $843,600 in the same month in 2019, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. Post secondary institutions have long focused on student housing — — but while workforce housing is less common, Cressy said that after analyzing different jurisdictions in Canada and the U.S., it is an increasingly active conversation for academic institutions and even other workforces in the public sector.

"You don't want people to ever have to choose between living and working in the city they love, or living somewhere else they can afford," he said. University of Toronto, which has offered faculty homes since the 1990s, is currently looking at expanding its staff housing. Its current portfolio includes a set of apartment buildings on its St.

George campus. The 85 units are all in subdivided, historic homes located in the for new full time faculty. "Demand far exceeds supply and we are in the process of building and planning for additional capacity," said Scott Mabury, U of T's vice president of operations and real estate partnerships, in an emailed statement.

For example, the university's Oak House Student Residence, which will open in 2024 in the Spadina Sussex area, will include 10 new townhouses and some will be available to faculty members, he wrote. "We are also in the early stages of developing a plan for more lowrise infill housing, after opening three units for faculty and student families in 2021," Mabury added.

A couple years ago, U of T built two houses on a laneway in a quiet alley near Robarts Library. A third home was an adjacent infill on Huron Street. The first two laneway homes were built as a pilot project to test whether to expand the same type of housing in the neighbourhood, where the university owns enough property to build up to 40 more laneway houses for staff and/or students.

However, several barriers have restricted the university's ability to accelerate construction. According to Mabury, these include "regulatory and permitting issues associated with new university housing developments, financing costs and a lack of funding support." The University of British Columbia has also offered staff housing since the 1990s and has been a leading institution in the concept.

"That's when, at least in Vancouver, the real estate market started going bananas," said Matt Ramsey, UBC's director of university affairs. "Vancouver is a gleaming jewel on the crown of unaffordability and we want to recruit and retain the best professors, students and keep them here." UBC currently has 1,100 below market rental units on campus for employees that range from studios to four bedroom units, according to Adam Charania, associate vice president of human resources, and Moura Quayle, vice provost and associate vice president of academic affairs.

While both staff and graduate students are eligible for these units, the primary focus is on faculty. Of the it offers, UBC’s full time staff and faculty may also be eligible to pay rent geared to their income for up to 10 years, meaning residents pay no more than 30 per cent of their pre tax household income.

After which, they can continue to live in the apartment unit by paying market rent. UBC plans to add roughly 300 more below market rentals by 2025 for faculty and staff on campus, with "thousands more in the years to come," said Charania and Quayle. By offering these units, "faculty and staff can focus their time and attention on their family, quality of life, and their academic and research pursuits," they added.

This includes more opportunities for collaborative projects and research since they will be close to campus. However, choosing to connect where they live with their employer can have its down sides for staff, too, said Matti Siemiatycki, professor and director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.

"If you leave or change your job, or if you end up in a dispute with your employer, that can create some potential for conflict," he said. But full time faculty taking on roles elsewhere are most likely to be leaving the city altogether, Siemiatycki said, adding that post secondary institutions across the country are competing for talent internationally and nationally.

"So conflicts are less of an issue in universities compared to (health care workers) who live in staff housing but change hospitals in the same city," Siemiatycki said. Although George Brown is still hashing out the costs, the type of units it may offer and the properties on which it could construct homes, Cressy said "we've identified the direction we're hoping to go," as the college considers building its first housing for faculty..