The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) welcomes the federal government’s commitment to putting Canada on a path to end homelessness within the next decade along with its proposed investments in non-market housing, supportive housing and the Canada Housing Benefit. However, achieving this ambitious goal will require more than building new homes and providing services to people already experiencing homelessness. It must also mean preventing low-income renters from losing their homes in the first place.
According to the federal government’s 2025 homelessness count, more than 65,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night across 75 Canadian communities. This number does not capture the full extent of homelessness across Canada. For instance, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario reported that approximately 85,000 people experienced homelessness in Ontario alone in 2025. The current crisis of housing precarity underscores the urgent need to prevent further affordable housing loss while expanding investment in permanent affordable homes.
While ACTO welcomes the renewal of key housing programs, Budget 2026 does not explicitly commit to renewing the National Housing Strategy as a comprehensive, rights-based framework. ACTO’s submission for Federal Budget 2026 called for renewal of the Strategy to 2037, a permanent and expanded Canada Housing Benefit, a national eviction-prevention and rent-arrears fund, as well as enforceable renter protections attached to federal housing investments. According to Statistics Canada, in 2022, institutional investors held 23.6% of the assessed value of Ontario rental properties, we continue our call for the federal government to regulate corporate landlords and curb the financialization of housing, which contributes to the rapid loss of existing affordable rental units – outpacing the building of new rental housing.
The federal government’s $30 billion commitment to housing investments, rental assistance and homelessness supports is welcome. However, realizing its full potential will require provinces to provide sustained operating funding and support services for new housing developments. ACTO urges the Ontario government to act quickly on this unprecedented investment in transitional and supportive housing so it can start meeting the urgent needs of Ontarians. We also call on the federal government to secure agreements with provinces and territories that guarantee adequate operating funding and make permanent affordability and enforceable tenant protections conditions for federal housing investments.
While the ten-year extension of the Canada Housing Benefit is a positive development, immediate, accessible, and non-repayable financial assistance remains essential to help renters facing eviction stay housed. In 2024, 1 in 4 Ontario renter households were in core housing need, almost four times the rate of homeowners. While advertised rents have declined in part of the market, an average two-bedroom in Ontario in October 2026 still required approximately $97,000 in annual household income to keep rent alone at 30% of gross income. These figures reinforce the need for permanent, income-based affordability alongside immediate assistance to prevent eviction.
The success of Build Canada Homes must primarily be measured by whether people in the greatest need can access and remain in these homes, alongside the number of units constructed. ACTO also urges the federal government to ensure that new housing investments deliver a substantial share of deeply affordable and rent-geared-to-income homes, with biding requirements to preserve affordability and regulate rents over the long term. Federal funding agreements must include enforceable human rights obligations, income-based affordability standards, strong tenant protections, and measurable outcomes.
Budget 2026 is a welcome acknowledgement that existing approaches to homelessness have failed to reverse the crisis. The federal government’s investment presents an opportunity for provinces to step up and work in partnership toward curbing homelessness. The federal government must ensure that these investments deliver permanently affordable homes, protect existing renters, and prevent further housing loss. Success must be measured by lasting housing security for people in greatest need.