Fix the Affordable Housing Shortage (Ontario)
CHF Canada’s Ontario Region is working to raise awareness of the need for housing in Ontario.
Affordable housing is the foundation for social and economic progress. It provides the stability individuals and families need to succeed in school, to find and keep employment, and to retire in dignity.
In 2013, the Ontario Region, together with the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA), published Where’s Home?, a study of Ontario’s housing market. It included these key findings:
- Rental production is stagnant even though there has been extraordinary growth in the homeownership market, particularly condominium development.
- Rental demand is likely to increase significantly in the coming years due to ongoing population growth, immigration and a possible downturn in the ownership market.
- Ontario’s low-income population is growing and facing increasing housing-affordability and supply challenges.
- Affordable housing waiting lists province-wide continue to grow. The most recent census data show a significant loss of 86,000 rental units over the last decade.
According to a 2016 survey by ONPHA, 171,360 households across Ontario are on municipal waiting lists for subsidized housing. That’s 3.5% of all Ontario households.
While the lack of affordable housing is a drag on the economy, investment in new housing creates local jobs and stimulates the economy.
CHF Canada’s Ontario Region recommends that the province:
- ensure affordable housing is not lost when federal operating agreements expire
- build on investments in affordable housing
- adapt the Investment in Affordable Housing program (IAH) to support new co-operative housing development, and
- give affordable housing priority access to surplus government land.
Relevant documents
- Time for Real Progress on Affordable Housing: Pre-Budget Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs (February 2016)
- Putting Communities First: CHF Canada’s Submission for the Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy Update (July 6, 2015)
- Where’s Home? 2013: Looking back and looking forward at the need for affordable housing in Ontario (June 2013)
