Urban planners and civil experts said that the recently approved housing plan in Toronto is a good step forward, but more efforts are needed to address the affordability crisis in the city.

Members of the Toronto City Council voted on Wednesday in favor of Mayor John Tory's proposals to allow the construction of complexes in neighborhoods currently restricted to single-family homes and to legalize rooming houses throughout the city.

Tim Smith, a planner at Urban Strategies in Toronto, also said that many existing buildings in the city can be converted into residential homes for students and other individuals living alone, reducing the demand for apartments.

Nemoy Lewis, assistant professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that the new housing units being built should be affordable for most city residents.

He added that the city must create more density in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods to ensure that people are not concentrated in economically deprived communities.

Likewise, the Toronto plan aims to surpass or meet the target recently set by the province to build 285,000 homes over the next ten years.

The city manager has until March to submit a report to the executive committee outlining how to build the homes.