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Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

Home Blog Housing Toronto affordable housing wait list sets yet another new record – underlining need to preserve TCHC homes

Michael Shapcott

Toronto affordable housing wait list sets yet another new record – underlining need to preserve TCHC homes

Toronto’s affordable housing wait list set a new record in September – 86,892 households, or a total of 160,520 women, men and children. The centralized wait list has set a new record every month since the recession of 2008. The September 2012 number is a staggering 26% increase from the 68,805 households on the wait list in September of 2011. The large and rapidly growing wait list underlines the urgent need to preserve and maintain Toronto’s existing affordable housing stock. Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee recently unanimously endorsed a plan by Councillor Ana Bailao’s special working group to preserve most of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s single family homes that had previously been targeted for sell-off.

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Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.