The Ontario government says that it will release its much-anticipated (and much-needed) poverty reduction strategy sometime in December. Most housing experts (including the Wellesley Institute) say that the strategy has to include a housing benefit – money that is paid to low and moderate-income renter households to help them cover the gap between what the landlord charges and what they can truly afford to pay. A housing benefit is a good idea and long overdue, but not all benefits are created alike. The Wellesley Institute has produced a backgrounder on the key features of a new housing benefit for Ontario.