Right2Housing is ensuring the City of Toronto continues to employ a rights-based approach to its housing planning and policy.
Modern apartment buildings in downtown Toronto (Manroop Aulakh/TMU J-School)
Toronto is facing a housing crisis, with soaring prices leaving fewer people to afford to own or even rent a home and a major increase in homelessness.
This city has long been known for its high cost of living and a report by Toronto Metropolitan University shows that 46.8 percent of Tenant households spend more than 30 percent of their pre-tax income on shelter costs and nearly one in five households live in core housing need.
This reputation has only been reinforced in recent years by a housing crisis that has left many would-be homeowners struggling and the report also entails that many solutions do not address the influence of financialization on the housing crisis nor the impact of the growth income inequality and low and middle income stagnation.
In a phone interview, Joy Connelly, a steering committee member at Right2Housing, said the root cause of housing doesn’t even have to do anything with it but is more on income inequality, and polarization with wealth.
“Those people have a wealth that has the capacity to drive up prices, certainly in the ownership market and that was exacerbated when interest rates were very low, so that reduced the barriers to being able to purchase a home,” she said.
Connelly said there’s also the actual majority of people in Toronto who can’t break into that ownership market and can’t build capital, given high rents and at the more extreme end for people on social assistance.
“The maximum shelter allowance for people who are on welfare on Ontario Works is $390 a month; this hasn’t changed for years and years,” she said.
The Right2Housing plan has many features which consist including one to have rooming houses which Connelly said may even be a risk.
“There’s a real risk that the enforcement that the city will be bringing in, will actually lead rooming house operators to shut down their operations, which will mean the displacement of many of Toronto’s lowest income people with no place to go,” she said.
Right2Housing is an independent organization that has different plans than the City of Toronto which has been adopted by the City Council called HousingTO.
The HousingTO Plan report is premised on collaboration, coordination, and partnerships in order to achieve success over the next 10 years and is estimated to cost all three orders of government a combined $23.4 billion.
It is estimated that there are more than 9,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in Toronto End chronic homelessness and achieve functional zero by 2030 by providing 18,000 affordable and supportive housing opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness and for those that may be at risk of becoming homeless which is to cost $33 million.
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