Mixed-use developments and affordable housing

[tomh009]

The Record has an article about a UW study on mixed-used developments this morning:
https://www.therecord.com/news-story/810...f-the-lrt/

The implication in the study (published in JAPA, which requires a subscription) is that mixed-use developments are unaffordable:

It looked at mixed-use neighbourhoods in Toronto between 1991 and 2006 and found that housing in mixed-use zones was the least affordable, compared to housing in other parts of the city and in the larger Toronto area.

And later

"That leads to inequality in the city, and segregation," said Tara Vinodrai, a geography professor at the University of Waterloo and one of the authors of the study.

I can't see the original study to see what the actual conclusion was, but at least the above statement seems to mix correlation with causation. I am sure that new construction near transit is, on average, less affordable than the old buildings it replaces. And I am sure that the cities (including Toronto, the subject of this study) promote mixed-use for new developments. But that does not mean that mixed-use should automatically be less affordable than dedicated residential.

The second half of the article is more focused on the need for affordable housing (which I strongly support) but combining that with "mixed-use" and claiming that the latter is the problem makes no sense to me.