Our previous New Normal Election Analysis pieces examined seniors’ care, income inequality, and good jobs, mental health, and anti-racism. Below, we look at provincial party housing commitments. We have assessed the parties on how they would deliver affordable housing, which low-income households need; increase rental affordability and community housing – key where owning is not an option; and on supportive housing, which is important for ending chronic homelessness. The needs of Indigenous, racialized, LGBTQ2S+, and women fleeing violence for affordable and adequate housing are heightened, and must be specifically addressed in order to move towards a more equitable future.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)
Delivering affordable housing
The OLP plan promises 138,000 “deeply affordable” homes will be built over the next ten years. They would establish an “Ontario Home Building Corporation” to finance and build affordable homes.
In addition to building more new homes, they plan to retain and repair “tens of thousands” of existing affordable homes and work with partners to ensure that newly built homes create more ownership options for marginalized communities.
Rental and community housing
The OLP proposes to work collaboratively with Indigenous partners to create a distinct housing strategy for and led by off-reserve Indigenous peoples. This includes providing direct funding to build 22,000 new homes for off-reserve Indigenous peoples over ten years.
The OLP promises to bring back rent control for all rental homes as it was prior to 2018.
The OLP would invest $15 million annually into the Ontario Land Tribunal and Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) to help clear backlogs and address delays, including towards allegations of illegal renovictions.
They plan to expand and build new co-operative housing by providing $100 million in funding to the co-op sector over ten years. They would also modernize the funding formula for co-op housing corporations to continue to provide rental assistance province-wide.
Supportive housing
The party commits to 38,000 new supportive homes, and would provide municipal and non-profit partners with $360 million annually to operate and improve social, supportive, and community housing services. The proposed funding will increase following the completion of the new supportive homes.
The OLP commit to the ‘Housing First’ approach and ending chronic homelessness by providing municipalities and housing support providers with $100 million per year to help move people into independent and permanent housing with comprehensive supports. This goal will be supported by relaunching the homelessness census to better understand housing needs and issues.
They will also increase funding towards creating new emergency shelter beds and improving the condition of existing shelters. They plan to renovate older shelters to become long-term residences and supportive housing units.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
Delivering affordable housing
The proposed budget does not include any new measures to increase access to affordable housing.
Rental and community housing
The proposed budget indicates that the government will continue to invest in the Community Housing Renewal Strategy. The budget indicates an investment of $19.2 million over three years to increase the capacity of the Ontario Land Tribunal and LTB.
Supportive housing
The proposed budget indicates that the government will extend investment into the Social Service Relief Fund, which includes some funding towards supportive housing and homelessness supports.
Green Party of Ontario
Delivering affordable housing
The platform would build 122,000 new permanently affordable housing rental homes over ten years, mandate inclusionary zoning (IZ), and require that all housing projects above a “certain size” build a minimum of 20 per cent affordable units. They would also work with all levels of government to develop regulations to ease financialization of affordable rental housing stock and single-family homes.
Rental and community housing
To ensure more affordable housing is available to Indigenous communities, the Green Party promises to fund an Urban and Rural Indigenous housing strategy led by Indigenous peoples, with funding going towards 22,000 Indigenous-owned and operated permanent homes.
The Green Party would invest $240 million per annum towards a portable housing benefit, estimated to benefit 311,000 households.
They would bring back rent control to regulate rental increases year-to-year and implement vacancy control. They also plan to establish a system to govern above-guideline rent increases, update and strengthen sections of the Residential Tenancies Act dealing with state of repair for multi-unit buildings, and strengthen rules and penalties for renovictions and bad faith evictions. They would also increase the budget of the LTB by $3 million to hire additional adjudicators, eliminate forced online hearings, and add transparency to the appointment process.
The Greens also commit to partner with the federal government to renew 260,000 community housing rental homes over the next decade. They would also provide more supports to non-profit housing providers to purchase rental buildings and maintain affordability.
Supportive housing
The Greens commit to ending chronic homelessness in Ontario within ten years. They would do so by utilizing a Housing First model. Their plan also includes resuming the homelessness census and engaging with communities and individuals with lived experiences of homelessness to provide input for program development.
The Green Party commits to building 60,000 permanent supportive homes with wrap-around services over ten years through partnerships with public, private, and non-profit housing organizations. They plan to dedicate 10% of these homes to people with complex care needs.
The platform also includes a commitment to provincially fund 50 per cent of shelter and community housing costs. They would also increase annual funding for safe and accessible transitional and supportive housing options for women and their families, including for culturally appropriate transitional housing.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
Delivering affordable housing
The ONDP commit to establishing Housing Ontario, a new public agency that would be tasked with financing and building 100,000 new affordable homes and 150,000 new non-market homes charging below-market rents, over the next ten years. The agency would also purchase and rehabilitate existing privately-owned rental homes to be operated by public, non-profit, or co-op housing providers.
Rental and community housing
To help an estimated 311,000 tenant households pay their rent, the ONDP proposes to work with the federal and municipal governments to provide direct financial support in the form of portable housing benefits.
They plan to bring back rent control for all units and scrap vacancy decontrol. They would also strengthen rules and regulations to help stop unfair renovictions and bad faith evictions, strengthen protections for renters impacted by reconstruction or redevelopment, “fix” the LTB, and reverse cuts to Legal Aid to ensure tenants can access legal help.
To help maintain existing community housing, the ONDP proposes to contribute 40% of the $2.6 billion needed to help repair and maintain 260,000 community housing units, with the federal government contributing 40 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent split between municipalities and community housing providers.
The ONDP will also restore the co-op housing seed fund and immediately invest $10 million towards expanding co-op housing. They also plan to work with the federal government and co-op sector to support a Co-operative Housing Trust, which would help expand the capacity of the sector – with the goal of building 20,000 co-op homes over ten years.
Supportive housing
The ONDP plan includes a promise to use and expand the ‘Housing First’ approach and recommits to the goal of ending chronic homelessness within ten years.
They commit to building 60,000 new supportive homes over ten years for people living with mental health and addictions challenges.
The ONDP also promises to properly fund women’s shelters and transitional housing. They plan to partner with community organizations to invest in culturally appropriate transitional housing and set aside a portion of the planned 100,000 units of affordable housing for women and families escaping violence.
Increasing Supply
All parties also have proposals to increase supply, which is key for middle-income affordability, but must be very aggressive to have any hope of helping those most in need. It is, however, very relevant for many families who are not yet Thriving – who, though they may not be considered low-income, do not have what evidence has demonstrated they need to live healthy, happy lives. To that end, we note that all four parties are committed to building 1.5 million homes over the next decade. The opposition parties all have various proposed mechanisms to deliver this, including new taxes, new incentives, and commitments to ensure new “as of right” housing options can be built. The PC Party declined, prior to the election, to make clear how they would achieve this goal.
All parties must ensure they have reviewed these proposals to address equity on both on the obvious level of the measures themselves, and further that the ambition of their proposals is intended to do enough to lower costs for low-income individuals and families. How will their changes improve our current failings on low-income ownership, social housing, and deeply affordable rental housing?
Conclusion
Will the parties’ proposals lead to a New Normal in which all Ontarians are adequately, affordably housed?
On affordable housing, the opposition parties have provided their goals, against which they can be measured. However, it is essential that a transparent assessment be undertaken of how much is needed, and that yearly targets are set, and met. No party has established that their goal is adequate.
It is of grave concern that the current government, which prohibited its housing affordability panel from examining affordable housing for those in need, has taken no action on this issue. Increased market supply is not a solution to all facets of the housing needs of Ontarians, and our emphasis must be on those in deepest need first, not last or never.
On rental and community housing, all platforms have significant deficiencies. Rent subsidies, as proposed by the Green and New Democratic parties are essential solutions for many families right now, but all parties need to provide a vision of an end state in which rent is affordable (and units are adequate) for all, and demonstrate how a combination of subsidies, regulation, and construction will eventually reach that goal.
On supportive housing, the Wellesley Institute contributed to the Toronto Supportive Housing Growth Plan which estimated a minimum of 18,000 units were needed in Toronto by 2030. Unless the Ontario Green and ONDP proposals are weighted towards Toronto, we are concerned they are not aiming for, let alone meeting, Toronto’s needs. The OLP plan is inadequately ambitious. And the budget proposed by the Progressive Conservative government means the homelessness crisis, with all the damage it does to individuals and costs it imposes on all of us, will continue to accelerate the pain it causes.
We urge all parties in future to create and commit to plans that include housing adequacy. Far too many families cannot afford the size of home they need to thrive, and this area calls for new thinking, clear goals, and measurable steps to meet Ontario’s needs.
Unfortunately, all parties also have failed to address the needs of racialized populations, although the opposition parties all had Indigenous-specific proposals (without needs assessments). Specific racialized communities are even more deeply afflicted by our homelessness and under-housing crisis than others, and our next government (and future opposition parties) must address this. LGBTQ2S+ populations, women fleeing domestic violence, and those with mental health issues are also disproportionately affected, and this must be addressed through specific action, including by meeting needs-based supportive housing goals – the opposition parties do propose some ideas to being to address this, but it was never clear their proposals were based on the future we must achieve.
Housing is a fundamental right. Lack of affordable, adequate housing is a key social determinant of health. We cannot afford the moral, healthcare, and economic costs of not creating, and delivering, on plans to solve this problem in the near future. Our next provincial government must swiftly develop and then act on a plan that will deliver affordability and adequacy for all and reduce chronic homelessness by at least 10 per cent a year for the next ten years. Nothing less is, or should be, acceptable.