[This submission is made] on behalf of the Housing Network of Ontario with four main recommendations for the provincial government to increase and maintain the supply of affordable housing in Ontario as it prepares the spring Budget. Formed in 2008, the Housing Network of Ontario is a network of over 450 organizations and individuals from across Ontario that includes anti-poverty activists, homelessness and social housing advocates, equity and human rights groups, non-profit organizations, and people with lived experience of poverty.
When the Ontario government released the long-term affordable housing strategy on November 30, 2010, the Housing Network of Ontario noted that the strategy failed to deliver a plan that would produce a single new unit of subsidized housing, or meaningfully improve housing affordability for low-income Ontarians. We hope that the 2011 Budget includes measures to improve on the housing strategy, and in particular we have four recommendations:
- Over the last few years, the Affordable Housing Program has averaged 3,500 new units of affordable housing per year. Ontario should make a significant down-payment on a 10-yr affordable housing strategy by providing funding for 8,000 – 10,000 new units of affordable housing, responding to locally determined needs.
- Ontario should show leadership by contributing at least the same amount of funding as in the previous two years – approximately $45 million – for 2011 to extend the Affordable Housing Program, matching expected federal contributions and commit to this funding annually for the next three years.
- Much of the existing affordable housing is in serious need of repair and significant maintenance. We are thankful for the funds delivered in 2010 to address some of the major repair issues for social housing in Ontario. The government should provide further funding and other measures to maintain good affordable homes for Ontarians.
- Ontario should introduce an Ontario Housing Benefit, a monthly benefit to make existing rental housing more affordable to low-income Ontarians by reducing the gap between high rents and tenant incomes.
There are many other ways that the government of Ontario could address Ontarians’ need for good quality, equitably accessible and affordable homes. Amending planning legislation to promote inclusionary housing and making changes to rental housing laws to better protect tenants and prevent high rent increases in communities are just two low or no-cost ways to improve the housing situation of low and moderate income Ontarians.
Public investment in affordable housing is a sound investment that creates both long-term and short-term jobs and supports diverse, stable, and inclusive communities. The Housing Network of Ontario looks forward to the release of a budget based on a sound economic strategy that improves upon the long-term affordable housing strategy and which moves us forward to a prosperous and poverty-free province that will benefit all Ontarians.
