‘A lot of folks are really struggling’: Beaches butcher pitches affordable housing as part of restaurant reno

As lack of affordable housing is a persistent problem in this city, a restaurateur in the Beaches is serving up an out-of-the box idea.

An east-end Toronto butcher known for offering burgers to the hungry is now eyeing a plan to help the homeless that involves much more than meat.

David Brown, who owns the Fearless Meat restaurant in the Beaches, envisions transforming his small-scale restaurant into a 175-seat steakhouse that would sit at the retail level of a 10-storey affordable housing complex on his property.

Brown has already purchased the building adjacent to his 884 Kingston Rd. barbeque joint and is hoping to build a hundred affordable units for residents transitioning out of Toronto’s shelter system.

“Our city is basically throwing a lot of money at the homeless problem, and the homeless problem has been increasing, not getting any better,” Brown told CTV Toronto.

“There has to be a better way.”

Brown intends to partner with a non-profit housing provider that would provide 24/7 on-site supports and individual case management for residents. The successful applicants would be offered jobs at his steakhouse, he said.

“People that are in the shelter system—it’s a shock to their system to just be in that situation,” Brown said. “If you can provide people with the emotional supports and the skills to help them get their self-confidence back and skills to get back into the workforce … a lot of people in the shelter system would embrace that.”

Brown has been working with a city planner to refine the details of the building itself and has been told the proposed 10-storey height could be in line with the city’s official plan, as it is located on a designated avenue, though more information is needed.

City staff would not comment on the specific proposal to CTV Toronto, however, given the application has not yet been formally submitted.

“What the City of Toronto is doing right now on the housing front isn’t working,” Beaches East-York Councillor Brad Bradford told CTV Toronto.

“Encampments have doubled over the past number of years, and we can’t have people living in our public parks. That’s not a solution. So the answer is to build more housing, it is to have housing with supports. How we do it and where we do it matters, and those are important conversations to have with the community.”

“Building 90 to 100 units of net new affordable housing in the City of Toronto is absolutely needed,” said Keith Hambly, CEO of housing provider Fred Victor.

Fred Victor previously partnered with Brown on transitional housing projects led by Brown on properties he owned on Dundas St. E. near Parliament St., which continue to operate.

With more than 12,000 people homeless in Toronto every night, it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck approach, said Hambly.

“We need more of that—people thinking outside the box, thinking more along the lines of ‘How can I help solve this issue of homelessness in the city of Toronto?’ Get people into housing as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

Brown pegs the cost of the proposed development as up to $20 million but points to the system savings that could be realized by giving vulnerable residents housing, supports, training, and opportunities.

“If we get this off the ground, I could roll this out right across the city,” he said.

“A lot of folks are really struggling, and I’m doing my best, in my own little way, to help them out.”