what is called "affordable" housing is not affordable to us. our only true option would be "social" housing. "social" housing comes with rent-geared-to-income (RGI) where rent is either 30% of one's income, which is the federal and provincial definition of "affordable" or equivalent to the shelter allowance for those on social assistance. unfortunately, "social housing" is loosing stock in Toronto at the moment and, besides a few federal initiatives for "supportive" housing, which is a form of housing that can feel coercive to members of our community and is managed through waiting lists and priority rules of access only, there is no political will in Toronto to build new such "social" housing. there is new awareness among advocates that Toronto built 3,900 such units between 1965 and 1995 and that it needs to decide to do so again, but politicians do not seem to hear us yet .

so what are our current options? rooming houses and housing allowances. housing allowances nowhere near provide what RGI offers in terms of housing quality and affordability. they are only offered on referral; the process to apply is built to empower private landlords and as such enhances all levels of discrimination against people with low-income, especially those on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). the stigma attached to disability and ODSP is still huge, and a lot take months to more than a year to find housing, if they do not abandon in the process. when housed, housing allowances never bring rent down to 30% of income, often displace insecurity onto food insecurity, and they are limited in time. in truth, they are incubators for future housing crises, while potentially participating in inflating rent on the private market.

fortunately, housing allowances are currently under review and a group of people with lived experience, in collaboration with housing and outreach workers have submitted requests for specific and profound changes, but there is the fear that these are not going to be taken seriously.


basics
right to housing, definition of housing need, acronyms

our context of crisis
people with no or low-income are particularly affected by renovictions; by policy analyst John Stapleton

"affordable" housing is not affordable for us
at the federal and provincial levels, an "affordable" rent is defined to be at 30% or less of income. in Toronto, it is very different

rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing is disappearing
RGI housing is housing with rents at 30% of income. it is "social housing". but, it is unfortunately slowly disappearing and we are collateral damage.

RGI versus Housing Allowances (HAs/TTHAP)

RGI versus Canada-Ontario-Housing-Benefit (COHB)
Housing Allowances and COHB are nowhere equivalent to RGI

Housing allowances and COHB are unfortunately used as a pseudo-social housing

Housing Allowances and COHB are more expensive than RGI for the City
(slide coming soon)

action to fix housing allowances and COHB