In advance of last year’s provincial budget, we called for important, necessary public strategies to build a New Normal in Ontario. Our focus was around poverty, homelessness, race, healthcare, mental health and well-being, while leading the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, we have not seen the progress we hoped to on those measures.
One of the areas this government has identified as being a key issue for action is housing, recognizing the challenges faced by many Ontarians in accessing affordable housing that meets their needs. In this year’s budget, the Wellesley Institute is calling for significant action on healthy housing for every Ontarian. It must be affordable, as people spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing means significant stress on their resources. It must also be safe, of good quality, stable, and include supports for those who need it.
Currently, the disparities amongst GTA residents on this social determinant of health are significant and devastating. Those who cannot access and afford the housing they need are more likely to be from traditionally underserved groups.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate, how important housing is for health. At the beginning of the pandemic, many people with low incomes and smaller, shared spaces could not physically distance. If it were possible at all, they did not have space to work from home. Their children had no place to quietly homeschool. Infections ran through households, and residents suffered an echo-epidemic of stress related problems linked to families with insufficient space. The long-term impacts of our failure to provide healthy housing throughout the pandemic upon child development and mental health is not yet known.
This budget should be measured against how far it goes towards a new normal in which every individual or family pays no more than 30 per cent of their income for a home that meets their needs. The homes must be healthy, which includes safe air quality, water supply, and being in good repair. The homes must include enough living space for each person in the household, space to support older adults or other family members in need, and space to work, study, and play where needed.
First, the government has so far been very focussed on market housing to address the housing affordability crisis. This cannot, however, come at the expense of affordable housing for those in greatest need. A significant part of the progress the government is hoping for on market housing is to come from municipalities. To ensure steps taken improve rather than worsen health equity, we recently explained why the City of Toronto must include a public health equity impact analysis of the impacts its housing proposals will have, and have not yet seen action. We urge the province to ensure that every municipality is required to provide the people in their jurisdiction an explanation of what the impacts of their efforts will be, to answer questions including:
- Will any of these new market homes be affordable?
- Will they worsen jobs and inequality?
- Will they be healthy?
- And, most importantly, how many of those currently experiencing or on the edge of homelessness will they help?
Past and future changes to provincial laws and funding should also include the same lens, and the reporting should be to the public.
Second, regulatory changes cannot and will not be enough to solve this problem. The government must demonstrate it will fund the change that is needed. This budget needs to clearly demonstrate how the government will hit targets for reducing chronic homelessness, eliminating it within 10 years. We recommend those targets are yearly, and they must be publicly tracked and include sub-targets for populations that have historically been disproportionately left in homelessness by government action. All levels of government must take full responsibility for their role in demonstrating to the public how a 10 per cent reduction in chronic homelessness will be achieved each year. They cannot wait for other levels of government to act, nor use them as an excuse to fail to meet the need.
The most important funding commitment from the province should be to supportive housing. The government must demonstrate how they will fund enough supports for 10 per cent of the need to be eliminated each year. Wellesley helped lead the Supportive Housing Growth Plan for Toronto which demonstrated the need for 18,000 new units by 2030. We have not met those goals and we must do so.
Guaranteeing that supportive housing funding will be available for every needed unit would free up providers to focus on finding funding for construction. The government should also consider how it can ensure construction and repair funding is available, including through creation of a capital fund for non-profits.
The government should also address prevention of chronic homelessness, reducing future costs. The best way to do this is through addressing other social determinants of health, particularly income security, good jobs, and mental health and well-being. Until that work is completed, however, it also means ensuring that rent supplements are adequate to keep those on the brink from falling. These supplements must also be carefully targeted to ensure they are equitably distributed.
We look forward to reviewing this year’s budget for the inclusion of health equity analyses for housing, enough supportive housing investments to meet the needs of Ontarians, and rent supplements that will prevent homelessness in the short term.