About seven out of 10 Toronto residents believe that the city is not doing enough to increase the supply of rental housing, according to a new poll by Forum Research.

The telephone poll of 1,077 randomly selected residents found that 69 per cent of respondents believe that the city should be doing more to boost the availability of rental housing while only 16 per cent of respondents said that the city was doing either enough (9 per cent) or more than enough (7 per cent). A further 15 per cent of respondents said they weren’t sure.

The results of the poll were even more stark in the former City of Toronto, where the cost of living tends to be the highest. About 80 per cent of respondents there said the city should be doing more to increase the supply of rental housing while just 12 per cent said the city was doing enough (8 per cent) or more than enough (4 per cent).

The poll also asked respondents to weigh in on the state of current laws governing rental housing.

It found that 33 per cent of respondents believe the laws favour landlord while 23 per cent believe the laws favour tenants. About 15 per cent of respondents said that neither side was favoured while another 29 per cent said they weren’t sure.

When it comes to who should have final say over rental housing matters, including evictions, the majority of respondents said the city should have either some authority (36 per cent) or a lot of authority (29 per cent).

Tenants in Ontario can only be evicted following an order from the Landlord and Tenant Board, which is a tribunal operated by the province.

“The majority of Torontonians believe that the city should have authority on housing issues,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a press release accompanying the poll. “Additionally, most Torontonians think the city needs to do more to increase the supply of rental housing.”

A healthy vacancy rate is generally considered to be between two and three per cent, though the vacancy rate in the City of Toronto is currently about 1.1 per cent.

One report released by the Ryerson City Building Institute in 2017 estimated that Toronto would need to add add 8,000 purpose-built rental units per year in order to get back to a healthy vacancy rate.

The Forum Research poll is considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.