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Improving the Social Housing Reform Act

Social housing is housing that is owned and operated by government or non-profit organizations. It provides rental homes for many low-income people who cannot afford to rent or buy their home in the private market. Often the rent is set based on the tenant’s income with the government paying a subsidy. There is a huge demand for this kind of housing as shown by the growing waiting lists in cities and towns across Ontario. Sometimes governments make agreements with private landlords to provide housing to tenants with a rent subsidy.

But the people that live in this housing and those who are applying to live in this housing need to be treated fairly. Rules about rents and eligibility are in the Social Housing Reform Act. This law was passed by the Mike Harris government and is still in effect today. It treats social housing tenants and applicants very harshly. As part of our response to the Ontario Government’s consultation about a Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy, we made many recommendations for changes to this law. These included:

putting into the law a clear statement of the purpose of the law, starting with a commitment to provide affordable and appropriate housing for disadvantaged individuals and families;
removing barriers to access to affordable housing for recent immigrants, refugees and those with no legal status in Canada;
creating a meaningful and transparent process for dealing with tenants’ complaints;
revising the way that rent is calculated to reflect tenants’ actual ability to pay;
making sure that private-market landlords who make rent subsidy agreements with government live up to these agreements by providing decent housing and protecting tenants from harassment and discrimination.

After a long delay, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing issued a document called Building Foundations: Building Futures which promised a social housing system that puts people first, creates strong partnerships, supports affordable options and provides accountability. The Minister also introduced Bill 140 into the Legislature which would replace the Social Housing Reform Act with the Housing Services Act and begin to address the promise of a better system. ACTO will be paying close attention to the implementation of the Housing Services Act and will continue to lobby for improvements to ensure tenants in social housing are treated fairly.

ACTO appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy and called for changes to the proposed legislation to ensure fairness for tenants and to protect social housing from privatization. ACTO will be paying close attention to the implementation of the Housing Services Act and will continue to lobby for improvements to ensure tenants in social housing are treated fairly.