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Michael Shapcott

Toronto to provincial and federal governments: Time to close housing funding gap

The City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing have launched a new campaign designed to re-engage the federal and provincial governments in financial support of social housing. ‘Close the housing gap’ builds on the work of City Council’s special commission on TCHC housing chaired by Councillor Ana Bailao.

The new initiative was launched on the eve of a federal-provincial-territorial housing ministers’ meeting with the goal of pushing housing ministers to move the policy agenda forward.

The Bailao committee was created to chart a sustainable future for the city’s social housing stock, which provides a home to some of Toronto’s poorest and most vulnerable residents. The committee was formed after city councilors rejected a plan by the civic administration for the massive sell-off of TCHC homes to finance a growing capital repair shortfall.

The Bailao working group consulted widely and produced a report that includes a variety of strategies to meet the fiscal needs of the city’s affordable housing landlord.

One part of the working group plan was a refinancing deal through Infrastructure Ontario that was approved by City Council several months ago.

Federal and provincial financial contributions to social housing have been eroding in the past two decades, and the new campaign is aimed at reversing this trend. The Mayors of Canada’s biggest cities have issued their own powerful call for renewed funding commitments from federal and provincial governments.

The Wellesley Institute has been a partner with TCHC tenants and housing advocates in supporting the work of the Bailao committee. Our research and policy work, including Precarious Housing in Canada, sets out the facts, figures and analysis on critical housing issues at the national level, in every Canadian province and in large urban areas.

As new data is released over several dates this summer, the Wellesley Institute will be updating Precarious Housing. In the early fall, we will issue a new edition with the latest numbers and a detailed analysis of the current housing landscape.

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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.