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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 Wait List Sets New Record, As FCM Calls For Housing Action

Michael Shapcott

Toronto Wait List Sets New Record, As FCM Calls For Housing Action

Toronto’s affordable housing wait list hit an all-time high in September – 90,157 households, or 165,977 women, men and children. The record-breaking wait list is just one of a growing number of indicators of deep and persistent housing insecurity in Toronto and across Canada.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities launched a new national campaign on October 28 for housing called “Fixing Canada’s housing crunch”  led by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson that aims for a new national housing plan.

Multiple reports, including the Wellesley Institute’s Precarious Housing in Canada, set out the many dimensions of inadequate housing and its impact on the health of individual Canadians, along with the social and economic health of communities and the entire country. An updated version of Precarious Housing is in development.

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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.