On October 6th, Ontarians will head to the polls to vote for their members of provincial parliament. The political parties must keep in mind:
- There are 1,301,395 tenant households in Ontario and 125,000 residents living in housing co-ops; accounting for almost one-third of our province’s population.
- Over 13 percent of households live in poverty in Ontario and 627,530 of these households are unable to afford shelter that meets adequacy, suitability, and affordability norms, placing them in core housing need. Most but not all of these are tenants.
- Thousands more stay in homeless shelters across Ontario; for instance, in 2010, 22,276 people in Toronto, 7,156 people in Ottawa and 2,859 people in Waterloo Region had to stay in homeless shelters.
And yet, the housing concerns of these Ontarians are rarely addressed by government, and are almost never one of the issues discussed during the election campaign.
Now is the time to for commitment from our next MPPs. See the Take Action page to see what the Housing Network of Ontario has called on the parties to do to help end the housing crisis in Ontario.
