For decades, transit-oriented development (TOD) in Canadian cities has followed a familiar pattern: new lines are announced, nearby property values surge,^[1] and the low-income residents who depend on transit most are priced out^[2]. While major transit investments present an opportunity to build complete communities — with sustainable transportation, improved access and connectivity, and new housing supply — they frequently become engines of displacement for the very communities they are meant to serve.

This is a common trajectory for communities undergoing TOD, but it is not inevitable. Transit doesn’t automatically cause displacement^[4]; rather, it creates conditions that, without intervention, frequently lead to the erosion of affordability near transit lines. These conditions are variable. The same transit investment can produce different outcomes in different neighborhoods^[5].

While some cities have a strong track record of growing housing supply near transit, the benefits are often unevenly shared. When land costs soar, community housing providers face intensified financing barriers, and the growing trend of investors treating housing as a financial asset compounds the problem.^[1,3] Without affordable options, vulnerable residents — often racialized and members of equity-deserving groups — are pushed out, and those who can afford the premium of living near transit move in.

This unevenness points to what the evidence shows clearly: local policy choices and context matter^[6]. And this wide-ranging variability in local policy approaches is itself a reflection of gaps between the larger systems that shape TOD. Despite affordability and inclusion being stated goals of transit funding, no federal or provincial incentives, policies, or programs exist to align transit and housing plans. Municipal governments see property values spike near new transit infrastructure^[7], but sometimes lack the tools, funding, or coordinated plans needed to act before displacement begins.

Far from fixed realities, these are “system glitches” that can be addressed through closer policy alignment and coordinated implementation. There are concrete points in the planning and development process where targeted efforts can steer TOD towards more affordable, equitable, and sustainable communities — and communities in Canada and beyond are demonstrating how.

ETOAH is an evidence-based framework that makes affordability and inclusion core to the development process, not an afterthought. It recognizes that transit infrastructure and affordable housing are interconnected systems that must be planned, financed, and delivered together.

This approach is being championed by the Canadian Alliance for Transit-Connected Housing (CATCH), a national initiative born out of the Equitable Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Lab in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2023, Social Innovation Canada brought together stakeholders across the housing and transit ecosystem — CMHC, the City of Hamilton, the Hamilton Community Foundation, non-profit housing providers, resident groups, planners, developers, and financial institutions — to develop and pilot tangible strategies for cities to preserve and create affordable housing near transit.

Through the Lab process, these partners were able to identify new opportunities to add both density and affordability near Hamilton’s incoming LRT line. The Lab also revealed that Hamilton’s challenges weren’t unique — cities across Canada were grappling with similar barriers, spurring the creation of a national initiative to scale these solutions.

Two years after the start of the ETOAH Lab in Hamilton, shovels hit the ground in Hamilton’s new Small Lot Fourplex Initiative — an effort being led by Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes to ultimately convert 200 single-unit dwellings along the LRT into fourplexes, producing 800 units. While the LRT created the pressure to preserve affordability, the Lab unlocked the opportunity — bridging the potential identified by Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes with the requisite enablers, including the City of Hamilton’s move to allow fourplexes as-of-right.

Hamilton is just one example of how equitable outcomes can be achieved when local actors come together early to align transit investment with affordable housing goals. Calgary demonstrated the power of proactive public land use when it converted a former hospital site near the Bridgeland-Memorial LRT station into 24 mixed-income affordable units. By identifying and deploying municipally owned land before transit-driven speculation could inflate values, the City delivered housing 15% under budget while ensuring long-term affordability through a mix of subsidized, rent-geared-to-income, and below-market units. Today, 70% of residents commute under 30 minutes, and 35% walk or bike to work — proof that strategic land acquisition can support both affordability and access.

The emerging research from CUI and the School of Cities confirms what CATCH addresses through the ETOAH framework: Canada’s housing crisis is a mosaic of local shortages that demands coordinated, place-based solutions. Inclusive, equitable transit-oriented development is possible with the right approach — and as Canada invests billions in transit infrastructure, knowing how to unlock this potential is key.

Affordable housing near transit should not be an optional add-on, but infrastructure that underpins both equity and the viability of new transit infrastructure itself. When public investments in transit align with public investments in affordability, we can create complete communities where access and inclusion aren’t competing goals, but mutually reinforcing outcomes. And when local actors come together early in the planning and development process and target the conditions behind displacement, TOD can become one of their most powerful tools for building more affordable, equitable and sustainable communities.