The average cost of a home in Toronto, the city I’ve called home since I was six, is over $1.13 million.
If you want a detached home, that number increases to $1.4 million.
To purchase a home in our city, you need to put 20% down. That means you’ll need to save $226,000 to purchase a home in Toronto. First time homeowners can get away with 10%; that’s $113,000.
According to a recent study, Toronto is now the sixth least affordable city in all of North America, and yes, less affordable than New York. I mention New York because the two cities have a lot in common. The weather is practically the same, they’re both major east coast cities with several sports teams, and they both brag about their arts scenes. The last point is why we’re all here today.
Writers and artists living in big cities
Not a day goes by in Toronto where there isn’t some kind of play or exhibition or author reading or a performance of some kind. I’ve sat on the grass of Trinity Bellwood's Park next to Margaret Atwood as we watched and listened to George Elliot Clarke perform one of his award winning poems. I’ve purchased pieces from local artists hosting exhibitions at galleries where I’m cool with the owners. I’ve gone to countless readings and immersed myself into the writing and arts community and have enjoyed nearly every moment of it.
But I’m fortunate. I earn enough money to have paid rent in a west-end neighbourhood near the core of the city before moving farther south to a three-bedroom condo by the lake. At my west-end apartment, I could’ve taken a streetcar or subway to frequent any of the events I mentioned within twenty minutes. My circumstance is not normal.
The average content writer in Toronto earns just over $50,000/year. Editors in Toronto make about $57,000/year with Senior Editors making close to $70,000/year.
Since purchasing a home is not even in the discussion for artists, let’s talk about rent. As per March of 2024, the average rent in Toronto is about $2,600/month. If you’re looking for a two bedroom, you’ll need to fork up about $3,400. On a $50,000 yearly income, many writers, artists and creative people I know are rooming up, regardless of their age. It’s become a basic sacrifice if you want to live in the city.
The contradiction
Toronto really is a beautiful city, and I’m using Toronto as a microcosm for other big cities who brag about their arts scenes. The reality is that purchasing a home for writers is pretty much impossible. Fine. Maybe homeownership is not a thing for my generation. But since renting is our only option, it’s still difficult to survive in the city on a $50k income; nearly impossible without some serious sacrificing.
And what if you want to commute all of the book readings, art galleries, plays, dances, and other creative performances the city has to offer? It seems contradicting that a city filled with so much artistic expression makes it impossible for its artists to live within its borders.
And the issue is layered. We can’t speak of affordability without mentioning compensation. But if you live in Toronto, you know that many of our presses are indie. And those indie presses rely on grants to sustain (more on that later). The most lucrative approach for writers is actually to freelance. More specifically, copywriting is the path to making the most money. But with copywriting, you produce a lot of content that you may not necessarily be passionate about, so there’s a bit of give and take. A lot, actually.
For editors, taking side jobs is what’s necessary to supplement their income. They still get to help writers and do what they love, but it also means working many more hours on top of their full-time job. Again, it’s a give and take, but a necessary one if you want to live in the city.
So what can be done?
I do want to give Toronto (and Canada) credit. We have fairly robust grant programs. TAC, OAC and CAC are city, provincial and national grants that many writers and artists have taken advantage of. You can receive six figure grants to produce a screenplay or five figure grants to produce a book. They offer marketing grants, grants for digital creations, plus many more opportunities to fund your creative ideas. Grants are essentially lottery systems so this doesn’t get to the core of collective compensation, but it helps.
Affordable housing is a more direct solution that speaks to the core of the problem. According to the city of Toronto, as of July of 2021, “There are 105 active affordable rental and supportive housing project in the development pipeline representing approximately 10, 400 homes.”
We need more of this, and not just for the writers and artists. It does the city no good to price out the creators who make the city alluring in the first place. Writers and artists shouldn’t be fighting against their cities, we should be embraced. And no I’m not talking about handouts, I’m simply speaking about affordability.
I agree too. I am fortunate as well. As I think we all might be in our own way. I live in the US and most major cities here are unaffordable, and not just for artists. I live in a small city (Greenville, SC, populuation about 72,000) and the price to purchase a house within city limits where you are walking distance to a lot has exploded in the last several years. Right now if I look for a house to purchase (and not even a single family home) the price is about $700,000. If you want a condo downtown it's over the $1 million mark. Greenville relies a lot on tourism. Last weekend was our second annual Jazz Fest with over 20,000 people descending upon the city, but the people who support those festivals - artists, hospitality folks - can't afford to live within the city limits, where they can walk to work or the many amenities that has apparently put Greenville on the list of the top ten places to live in the US. Sure, it's in the top ten, if you can afford to live in the city limits, where you are close to all of the reasons that got it on the list. The city is building affordable housing but they haven't even broken ground yet, so it's probably two years out for people to be able to apply to live in that housing. They are and will be consistently behind the demand for that kind of housing. And isn't only for artists, it's for teachers, firefighters, etc. Affordability is going to be the key to helping so many.
I couldn't afford to live in California, so I moved to Tucson, where cost of homes and rent is less expensive. I couldn't even manage here in my studio on social security if it were not for my housemate in the main part of the house paying most of the expenses. We are fortunate not to be on the street like so many.