The Province engaged with Service Managers (SMs), Indigenous Program Administrators (IPAs) and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) through a series of focus group sessions in August 2021. These sessions were held to inform the development of the 2nd National Housing Strategy NHS Action Plan and possible improvements to the provincially delivered programs under the NHS (for example, Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative/OPHI, Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative/COCHI and Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit/COHB).

SMs and IPAs shared positive feedback about the programs, citing the flexibility and range of the programs to meet a variety of local needs for affordable and social housing, capital builds and repairs and homeownership assistance.

Important feedback on how the programs could be improved was provided which includes the following:

  • The need for funding flexibility and multi-year allocations with sufficient notice to plan for the use of funding.
  • Streamlining reporting requirements to reduce duplication given that current reporting requirements are cumbersome and time consuming.
  • Better coordination between CMHC, the Province and proponents on application-based programs for more strategic decisions and potential for greater impact.
  • Addressing the cap and eligibility criteria for homeownership component under COCHI.

As the Province is reporting on a one-year action plan, the current program guidelines will be extended for one year and program improvements will be revisited during completion of the three-year action plan.