Last month, Wellesley Institute released our Healthy Budget Builder Toronto simulation. It allows users to create their own fully-funded City of Toronto budget, and make decisions over which city services to fund and how to pay for them. Since then over 800 people have used the website, and many chose to submit their balanced budgets. […]
Housing
A new normal for ending homelessness: Collective action towards adequate support
The pandemic and the associated recession provide an opportunity for us to reconsider the ‘normal’ state of affairs. Now is the time to envision a bold new normal and learn from the failures of the previous status quo. The old normal In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated number of Canadians […]
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Tall Order: Understanding change in Toronto’s inner-suburban rental towers
The aging rental towers in Toronto’s inner suburbs present big challenges and opportunities for health and social well-being. Housing has large impacts on health, whether its high rents that drive food bank use, or health risks from pests, unsafe conditions, and bad air quality. The 170,000 units in Toronto’s inner suburbs are a huge asset […]
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Widening inequities: Long-term housing affordability in the Toronto CMA
This paper examines long-term population-level housing affordability challenges and trends in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) from 1991 to 2016. This project’s goal is to analyze how housing affordability has changed for the general population and for different socio-demographic groups over this 25-year study period. Affordability is measured using shelter cost to income ratio […]
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Big Challenges for TCHC are Challenges for the City
Council’s Executive Committee is about to consider a staff report that is a follow-up to the task force on Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) chaired by Senator Eggleton. When the task force reported in January 2016 it recommended big changes. TCHC would move toward more income mix. Some housing would be transferred to community-based non-profit […]
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3 Steps Closer to Equitable Housing in Ontario
Ontario took real steps this week toward helping all of Ontario’s people to be safely and adequately housed. In the revised Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy three changes stand out that will help improve housing conditions and therefore good health outcomes. There are many things LTAHS does not address, such as new affordable housing or […]
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Housing in Neighbourhood Strategies
Housing-neighbourhood connections are weaker when it comes to programs and strategies in Toronto. Of course many municipal activities affect neighbourhoods, from recreation programs to roads to policing. In this think piece we want to consider the relationship between housing-related programs and explicit neighbourhood initiatives. For the most part, the priorities in housing programs aren’t framed […]
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Sustaining Ontario Social Housing
Housing that is affordable and in good condition is important for health and well-being. Non-profit, public, and co-operative housing provides this for disadvantaged people who cannot afford market rental. A first step is to preserve our existing affordable housing. Ontario needs an action plan, with ongoing provincial funding, to keep this housing affordable and in […]
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Canada’s National Housing Strategy – The Basic Facts
The National Housing Strategy is the most keenly awaited housing news in years. It sets out goals and puts details on the broad strokes that were in the March 2017 federal budget, while adding a couple of new pieces. This blog summarizes what’s in the Strategy. Our next two blogs will assess the strengths and […]
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National Affordable Housing Strategy Submission
The place where we grow up, spend our lives, and grow older deeply affects our health and our opportunities in life. A national housing strategy is a route to better living conditions and improved health outcomes for all Canadians. A wave of recent research has documented the essential role of housing in health, and in […]
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