Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says a one-time top-up to a rent supplement program will allow 1,350 more people to access housing, taking some pressure off the city’s overwhelmed shelter system, but warned that federal support is still needed. 

The Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit is a program which provides a rent supplement which caps clients’ share of a market-rate housing unit to 30 per cent of their household income.

The city exhausted its 2023/2024 funding for the provincially-administered program back in May, just as a refugee housing crisis was unfolding on the streets of Toronto.

Chow announced Monday that the city and province are jointly funding a $13.4 million top-up of the program, which will allow hundreds of people living in shelters to access housing.

 

“This is an example of what different orders of government can do when they work together,” Chow said. “While this program will make an important difference, the City of Toronto, other cities in the region and community groups are all asking for federal support on a long-term solution. We urge the federal government to step up and join our effort to support asylum seekers and refugee claimants.”

Asked why the federal government isn’t chipping in to help top up the program, Chow said those accessing housing through the fund don’t care where the money comes from.

“You know at the end of the day for a mom that's facing that difficult choice of whether to go back to an abusive relationship situation or to find a couch or some dark basement with her kids, they don’t care whether it's the federal, provincial or municipal government. They just want a place to live,” Chow said.

She said federal officials “know they need to do something” and there has been “a lot of conversation” between federal and municipal officials on refugees and housing.

The city estimates that around 35 per cent of those using its shelter system are refugees.

Last month the federal government said it would provide Toronto $97 million to help deal with refugees after a shelter intake centre was overwhelmed with refugees and asylum seekers sleeping out on the streets.

Chow pointed out that the federal government is very good at stepping up in a crisis, such as COVID-19 response or wildfires, and said that the housing crisis is a similar emergency, but that it is more difficult for people to see it as such. 

“I'm sure with the fires that's happening in B.C. and Northwest Territories, they're going to come together very quickly to come up with the funds,” she said. “We are in an emergency. It's harder to see. It's harder to understand because it's not like a fire, but for people that are experiencing it, it’s an emergency also.

“So I know that it can be done. We've seen that done. Let's just work together and make it happen for those that are facing a housing crisis.”

Chow said that while building affordable housing is the best long-term solution to the housing crisis, programs such as this one provide a much-needed quick solution for some people.

She said she'd also like to see support from other levels of government to purchase old rental buildings that are falling apart in order to protect tenants from evictions or demovictions.

“We can rescue some of those buildings. Some of them are maybe even empty or half-empty because it needs renovation,” Chow said. “So if we have the financial means that the federal government has, it’s stunning what we can do right now, while we spend some time in building affordable housing.”

Chow also touched on some of the revenue tools the city said last week that it would be exploring in order to make up some of the $46 billion budgetary pressure Toronto faces over the next decade. So far, she said, “no one has said no” to some of the proposals that have been put forward, such as a municipal sales tax.

“We'll lay out some options. It's up to the provincial and the federal government to say ‘yeah, I think we'll pick that.’” Chow said. “We don't want to be prescriptive. We just want a tool that grows with the economy.”

Chow’s Executive Committee is set to consider some of those options, which include a parking levy and steeper land transfer tax for luxury homes, at a special meeting on the city’s finances later this week.