On November 29, 2010, the Ontario government introduced its long awaited Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy. The Housing Network of Ontario was very involved the public consultation process before the introduction of the strategy and we were very disappointed in the lack of new investments in affordable housing. However, we were encouraged that some of our suggestions to improve housing legislation would be addressed through Bill 140, the ‘Building Strong Communities Through Affordable Housing Act’, which will replace Social Housing Reform Act, and introduce the new Housing Services Act. Bill 140, which was supposed to ensure the affordable housing system ‘put people first’. After careful examination of the Bill, the Housing Network of Ontario and its partners believe that the new law could be improved.
See the side-menu for submissions by our partners on Bill 140.
The Housing Network of Ontario supports the following changes to the new ‘Building Strong Communities Through Affordable Housing Act’, which would greatly improve the Act, and provide positive results for low-income Ontarians:
1. Prevent the privatization and sell-off of social housing:
Affordable housing strengthens the foundation of communities and is an important public asset. The Housing Services Act should make it illegal for municipalities to reduce the number of units of social housing.
2. Restrict punitive rent-geared-to-income rules:
Tenants on social assistance who live in social housing should not be worse off if they find a job. The Housing Services Act should protect tenants from rapid, unfair rent hikes if their income rises.
3. Improve fairness for tenants:
Tenants need an independent review process when disputing decisions made by housing providers, such as cancelling a rental subsidy. The people reviewing the decisions should not be the co-workers of the people who made them in the first place. The Housing Services Act should mandate the creation of an independent panel to consider these disputes.
4. Introduce Inclusionary housing:
One of the fastest and fairest ways to create stable, equitably accessible, affordable housing is to ensure that it is built into any new development. The government needs to amend the Planning Act to allow municipalities to introduce inclusionary housing policies.
5. Social Housing providers need a fair appeals process:
Under existing legislation, co-ops and non-profits have not had the ability to seek an independent review of Municipal Service Manager actions or decisions that did not involve costly court proceedings. The Housing Services Act must introduce an independent, fair and transparent appeals process for housing providers.
This opportunity to improve Ontario’s affordable housing system cannot be wasted.
Even with these changes, the Housing Network of Ontario believes that the Ontario government needs to meaningfully address the housing crisis by improving the long-term affordable housing strategy by introducing bold targets and timelines and funding for:
- New affordable housing units and repairs to rundown housing.
- A housing benefit and rent regulation to close the gap between low incomes and rising rents.
- Supports and services to help people access and maintain housing they can afford, and to ensure equitable, inclusive communities.
