Creating a Bold, Sustainable, Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy for All Ontarians
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by admin in Reports, SPT News
SPT Housing Submission to Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Download the full report [PDF Format]
Setting the Context
Access to safe and affordable housing is a human right, a basic need, and a vital determinant of individual, family and community health. It is critical to Toronto’s ability to attract and sustain workers as a major driver of Ontario’s economy, and plays an important role in ensuring a greener, livable city and promoting vibrant communities.
Across Ontario, more than 627,000 households are in core housing need, lacking suitable, adequate and/or affordable housing and without the income to access it. This crisis is felt acutely in Toronto where a third of all Ontario’s tenant households reside. Toronto is a city of renters where over 45% of all occupied dwellings are rental dwellings. In a city where 1 in 4 residents lives in poverty, high rent and utility costs and lack of social housing leaves about 257,700 households without affordable homes and tens of thousands more homeless. Overcrowding and major repair issues coupled with the affordability problem affect large numbers of residents.
Communities and groups disproportionately affected by lack of adequate, suitable and affordable housing include renters, low income residents, the unemployed, households whose major source of income comes from government transfers, the youngest and oldest in the population, women, lone parent families who are primarily mothers and children, recent immigrants, racialized groups, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities.
We need a bold, sustainable, long-term affordable housing strategy that responds to the housing needs and ensures the housing rights of all Ontarians. In these tough economic times, the provincial government may be hesitant to make the full investment that is required to tackle Ontario’s affordable housing crisis head on. Just tinkering around the edges of the problem will not bring a lasting solution for struggling communities. A bold strategy with the dollars to back it up is critical to Toronto residents and communities across the province.
Despite green shoot sightings with the upswing of Canadian financial markets, the people’s recession in Ontario, for all intents and purposes, rages on. The number of people receiving social assistance has remained at record highs in recent months with a caseload of more than 235,000 in October 2009.9 Ontario’s official unemployment rate sits at 9.3%, 674,000 Ontarians, with double digit unemployment levels in Toronto. We are reminded that it took almost eight years to return to pre-recession employment levels after the recession of the early 1990s. Ontario faces particular challenges with the widespread loss of manufacturing jobs which may never return – recovery or no recovery.
Real investment to significantly expand Ontario’s affordable housing stock will not only provide much needed housing but also create jobs and stimulate the economy through the challenging years ahead. Local hiring strategies and women in the trades programs can provide opportunities for communities and populations hardest hit and historically disadvantaged.
