Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy

Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program

ACTO continues to urge the provincial government to improve affordability for low-income households under the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program, for example by increasing capital subsidies and tying rent supplements to the new supply. We have also urged that the funding partners work together to spend the dollars that have been announced as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s mid-range housing market forecasts place rental demand by tenant households in Ontario at over 20,000 new units annually from 2001 onwards. Ontario has averaged 2,693 rental starts annually over the years 1995-2005. By contrast, from 1988 to 1992, rental starts averaged 16,000 units annually.

Background

The Federal-Provincial Affordable Housing Program was announced on November 30, 2001, and the Ontario and federal governments signed an Affordable Housing Program (AHP) Agreement on May 30, 2002. Under the Agreement, $244.71 million in federal funding could be available to the province over the next five years -- if Ontario fully matched the federal dollars. In addition, Ontario's share of the $320 million enhancement to the Affordable Housing Program, announced in the 2003 federal budget, was $121.58 million.

The former Ontario Conservative government announced it would contribute only $20 million in new funding to the program in the form of a grant of $2,000 per unit to offset the cost of the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on building materials for affordable housing units. This was less than 10% of what the federal government was offering to Ontario under the cost-shared program.

The Ontario Liberals promised to match the federal funding available under the Federal-Provincial Affordable Housing Program to create almost 20,000 new housing units for needy Ontario families. However, in the Liberal government's first budget introduced in May 2004, there were no new dollars for the Federal/Provincial Affordable Housing Program beyond what the former Conservative government had committed.

On April 29, 2005, federal and Ontario governments signed another Affordable Housing Agreement, committing $602 million over next 4 years - $301 million from each level of government. This new agreement brings the total amount of potential investment by federal, Ontario and municipal governments to at least $734 million over the life of the program. Ontario also expects to receive another $392.5 million for affordable housing from the federal government. This is the province’s share of the $1.6 billion (subsequently reduced to $1.4 million) for affordable housing originally announced in the federal budget that was passed in June 2005.

What progress has been made by the Liberal government on their promise to provide assistance to some 20,000 households – including rent supplements for more than 5,000 lower-income families in Ontario? As of August, 2006, more than 3,400 housing allowances were available in designated Ontario municipalities, and funding was allocated for 6,524 units as follows:

Rental & Supportive – 117 projects (5,440 units)
Homeownership – 7 projects (884 units)
Northern Housing Component – 4 phases (200 units)