Open letter: Torontonians need a budget that will prevent homelessness from increasing, slow the loss of affordable housing, and ensure that all Torontonians can access basic shelter

Mayor Tory and Toronto City Council,

We are writing out of concern for the future of Toronto and its residents. The proposed budget is a cruel budget. It abandons the city’s most vulnerable to the whims of the provincial and federal government and guarantees that Toronto’s affordable housing and homelessness crises will get much worse. We think it’s a budget that makes Torontonians less safe: it makes renters less safe, it makes people without any housing less safe, it makes every Torontonian who worries that they may not be able to find anywhere to live that they can afford less safe. 

People are struggling and homelessness continues to grow, yet there is no money in this budget to increase shelter spaces or help people get out of the cold, and there is little in it to prevent the situation from getting much worse. We cannot rely on federal and provincial money to materialize; although these levels of government have a responsibility, we do not get to shirk our own despite their lack of commitment.

We need to increase funding for programs to ensure that people can access shelter and respite from the elements and are supported in accessing housing. The shelter system is so full that each day the City turns away 100-200 people who are desperately looking for an indoor space because there is no room. And even when there are beds, strict shelter system rules and requirements make many people unable to access them. As a result, unhoused people with nowhere else to go end up sheltering in public parks, emergency rooms, the TTC, and libraries–public services that are not designed or equipped for this purpose. We need more shelter beds and low-barrier, 24/7 walk-in spaces for people who need to be able to get in out of the cold but who are unable to access a shelter space. Only when we get to the point where shelters are at 90% occupancy, as per the Toronto Shelter Standards, can we afford to think about reducing the size of the shelter system. We also need more rent supplements – a much cheaper option than a shelter space – to help people with low-incomes access housing and hold onto it.

We need to increase funding to essential neighbourhood-based programs like daytime drop-ins that provide basic necessities like meals and showers and offer people a safe and dignified space to build the relationships that enable them to access healthcare, housing, employment and maintain their housing. The need for these services is higher than ever, yet these critically important programs are not only chronically underfunded, but are now having to cut staff, hours, and programs due to inadequate funding. 

Additional funding is especially urgent given that MyAccessToHousingTO, the City’s new entirely online process for accessing subsidized housing and Canada-Ontario Housing Benefits,  has created a situation where the vulnerable and marginalized people who need these supports the most are unable to access housing because they lack access to the internet and the ability to navigate the online system on their own and no accommodations (workers and computers) have been provided for them. Neighbourhood-based programs can help fill this gap, but only if we fund them adequately. 

A key reason that homelessness is growing is that we don’t invest enough in programs and services that help tenants remain housed. When tenants are evicted or are forced to move out, landlords raise the rent and once-affordable housing is lost. Toronto loses affordable housing fourteen times faster than it builds it: for the past ten years, each year Toronto has lost an average of 7,309 private market affordable rental units while only creating an average of 509 new affordable units. Unless we do significantly more to stem this loss, we will never increase the city’s supply of affordable housing and homelessness will continue to grow–not from refugees or people coming from other cities, but from local people who are forced out of their homes by landlords and developers looking to make bigger profits and who can’t find anywhere to live that they can afford. 

While the budget increases funding to the EPIC program that helps people receiving social assistance stay housed, the programs that help all other renters from being evicted aren’t seeing an increase, even though the need for support is growing substantially. People who are behind in their rent and are at risk of eviction can access support through the Toronto Rent Bank. However, the program doesn’t have sufficient funds to help everyone who needs it and program restrictions mean that many people aren’t eligible to access help at all. The program needs to be better funded and eligibility criteria needs to be changed so that people who are unemployed can get support and people who don’t live alone are more likely to meet income eligibility requirements. 

The Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program (MURA) puts money in the hands of non-profit organizations to quickly purchase existing privately owned rental buildings so that the tenants aren’t evicted and rents stay affordable for the long term. Because purchasing an existing affordable unit is much faster and a fraction of the cost of building a new one, MURA is the most efficient and cost-effective affordable housing program the city has. This budget proposes a total of $10 million for MURA and sets a target of acquiring 120 rooms/units with that money, even though that amount is likely only enough to preserve 60. 60 rooms/units is not nearly enough when 7,309 will likely be lost this year. MURA needs to be considered an essential component of the city’s efforts to grow the city’s affordable housing supply and be funded accordingly. The supply of affordable housing can’t grow without preserving what we have. 

We, the undersigned, call on you to create a 2023 budget that will make Toronto safer by preventing homelessness from increasing, slowing the loss of affordable housing & ensuring that all Torontonians can access basic shelter by:

  1. Adding 1,000 more beds to the singles sector of the shelter system (without crowding more people into existing shelters) to address current and future needs.

  2. Reinstating 24/7 low-barrier respite spaces to give people a place to go besides the ER and TTC.

  3. Keeping warming centres open every day through the winter. 

  4. Doubling Rent Bank funding to prevent more people from losing their homes. 

  5. Increasing funding for housing benefits and housing help so that vulnerable people can access and maintain their housing.

  6. Increasing funding to neighbourhood-based community programs to not only cover rising operating costs, but to allow them to expand hours and services and provide support for access to subsidized housing.

  7. Increasing MURA funding to $25 million so that 170 homes will remain affordable in perpetuity.

    Signed,

[Note: Only your organization name will appear on the open letter; your email address will be used to send you a copy of the letter and your endorsement. On February 13th the signed letter will be both emailed to Council members and presented to them at a media event at City Hall.]
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