Overall objectives and approaches

Ontario’s priorities and actions/approaches to address challenges and needs

Ontario has been focusing on several priorities to address the challenges and needs outlined in the section above. Specifically, the Province has a comprehensive approach that spans the whole housing continuum, from homelessness and supportive housing to community and market housing.

Housing Supply Action Plan and Community Housing Renewal Strategy

The main initiatives through which the Province has been addressing its housing needs are the Housing Supply Action Plan (HSAP) and Community Housing Renewal Strategy (CHRS).

More Homes, More Choice: Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan is about unlocking the development of all kinds of housing, including owned, rental, private or non-profit housing. HSAP will help give people more choice and help bring costs down by creating more housing supply, of the types and sizes people need.

In 2020, the year after the HSAP was implemented, Ontario saw the highest level of housing starts in a decade and the highest level of rental starts since 1992 and these trends have continued into 2021. This combined to increase the supply of the full range of housing options, from single-family homes to midrise housing to apartment buildings

HSAP is complemented by Ontario’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy (CHRS), which helps people with low and moderate incomes who can’t afford today’s high rents to find affordable housing. The strategy will transform a fragmented and inefficient system into one that is more streamlined, sustainable and ready to help people who need it most. Since the CHRS was introduced, Ontario has simplified outdated and complex rules for calculating rent-geared-to-income assistance, making calculations faster for housing providers to administer and easier for tenants to predict and understand. The province has also changed waitlist rules to help people in need access housing more quickly.

As described in the first NHS Action Plan (2019–20 to 2021–22), Ontario has provided cost-matching investments for the three NHS initiatives that are delivered by Provinces and Territories. In Ontario, these initiatives are named:

• Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative (COCHI) (known federally as Canada Community Housing Initiative — CCHI)
• Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (OPHI) (known federally as PT Priorities — PTP)
• Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) (known federally as Canada Housing Benefit — CHB)

The CHRS leverages federal and cost-matched funding under COCHI, OPHI and COHB to help sustain, repair and grow community housing, and address homelessness in Ontario. HSAP, on the other hand, is not related to the NHS bilateral agreement funding given its focus on market housing supply and affordability. In that respect, HSAP complements the CHRS in that these two initiatives cover most of Ontario’s housing sector.

Ontario is creating significant affordable housing through COCHI, OPHI and COHB and intends to continue these investments over the life of the NHS agreement.

In addition to actions under the bilateral agreement, Ontario is taking significant steps to increase the supply of affordable and supportive housing through the Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF) and the newly announced Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) as described below.

Over Fall 2021 – Winter 2022, Ontario conducted comprehensive consultations based on a three-pronged approach to engage municipal partners, industry, and the public to find new solution to address the province’s housing crisis. The government intends to announce actions resulting from these consultations as part of the next phase of the housing supply action plan.

The targets and outcomes set to help achieve these priorities are outlined in the “outcomes and indicators” section below.

Supportive housing

In addition to HSAP and CHRS, another priority for Ontario is to improve its supportive housing system. This system is a complex network of 17 programs across three ministries (the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services). The Province is currently undertaking a supportive housing review to identify opportunities to streamline and improve coordination so that people get the help they need.

As part of this review, the Province engaged a wide range of partners and stakeholders in fall 2020 and winter 2021 to hear their ideas about how the supportive housing system could be improved. The government is now exploring opportunities to:

• improve local planning on supportive housing across sectors
• better connect people to the right housing and support services from the start of their journey
• better integrate programs to improve efficiency

Improving Ontario’s supportive housing system is a long-term initiative and the provincial government is committed to continuing to work with supportive housing partners to make this critical system work better for Ontarians.

The supply of supportive housing has expanded in the last 18 months through funding provided under the Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF) (a short-term pandemic response program to help protect homeless shelter staff and residents, provide rent relief, create longer-term housing solutions for vulnerable people and support plans to prepare for potential future outbreaks and/or emergencies). It is anticipated that approximately, 1,200 supportive housing units will be created through the SSRF. Coupled with Rapid Housing Initiative funding (a program to help address urgent housing needs of vulnerable Canadians through the rapid construction of affordable housing) provided by the federal government, this is a significant expansion of supportive housing supply that will help provide housing stability to vulnerable people.

Homelessness

Tackling homelessness is another key priority for Ontario. On March 7, 2022, the Province announced a new streamlined Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) with an additional annual investment of almost $25 million annually — bringing the total investment to nearly $464 million annually starting in 2022–23. The HPP combines three programs:

• Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative
• Home for Good
• Strong Communities Rent Supplement Program

The new program is streamlined and simplified so that local service managers can spend less time on paperwork and more time connecting vulnerable Ontarians with the supports they need.

The Province is also increasing funding under the Indigenous Supportive Housing program by $6.7 million starting in 2022–23, for a total annual investment of $30 million in culturally appropriate Indigenous supportive housing.

Since the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, Ontario has taken immediate steps to support vulnerable populations. Shelters and congregate supportive housing providers have also had to adapt to new public health guidance to keep residents safe. For instance, to maintain appropriate physical distancing and safeguard vulnerable people, shelters and other emergency housing providers have had to change the ways in which they provide services. As well there continues to be an increase in demand for services and supports for vulnerable households. In response to these changes and continued need for services, the provincial government made an immediate investment of $148 million in early April 2020 with the establishment of the Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF) program (described above). This initial investment was followed by three more. In total, through four phases of SSRF funding, the Province is investing over $1 billion, including federal transfers, to support shelters, create longer-term housing solutions, and help vulnerable Ontarians — particularly those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Another way in which the Province is tackling homelessness is to ensure up-to-date, real-time data is available on people experiencing homelessness in their communities. Accordingly, in March 2021, the Ontario Government directed the service managers who deliver our programs to begin collecting detailed, up-to-date information from individuals experiencing homelessness. These By-Name Lists can help connect people to services and can create a foundation for better service coordination. They support a more standardized approach for assessment and referral protocols to make sure clients are being matched to the services they need.

Service managers were also required to enumerate homelessness in 2021, using a Point-in-Time Count to provide a snapshot of homelessness in their communities. Enumeration provides opportunities to work across organizations and sectors, and enumeration can be leveraged by our delivery partners to build on their By-Name Lists.

By-Name Lists and Point-in-Time Counts will give service managers the information they need to understand and respond to homelessness in their communities and to track their progress in addressing homelessness over time.

Housing Affordability Task Force

Also, as announced in its 2021 Fall Economic Statement, and as part of its plan to address housing supply and affordability, Ontario appointed the Housing Affordability Task Force to identify further opportunities to get shovels in the ground faster, remove duplication and barriers, and make housing more affordable for hardworking Ontarians. The Task Force was composed of a diverse range of experts in not-for-profit housing, Indigenous housing, real estate, home builders, financial markets and economics, and provided recommendations to the government on potential further actions to make housing more affordable in Ontario.

Alignment of Ontario’s priorities with National Housing Strategy principles and consideration of federal human rights-based approach to housing

Ontario’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy (CHRS) is aligned with the National Housing Strategy (NHS) principles set out under the three themes of People, Communities and Partnership. Ontario and the federal government have agreed to outcomes and targets for their shared investments that focus on eliminating or reducing housing need for many Ontario households, repairing and sustaining the existing social housing stock, and increasing the supply of community housing over time.

The CHRS also complements the NHS goal of helping advance Canada’s obligations in relation to housing under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. The federal human rights-based approach to housing (as enshrined in the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019) represents the fulfilment of those obligations. The Community Housing Renewal Strategy acknowledges that when people have the housing they need, they have better health, education and employment outcomes. When housing is affordable and in areas near transit, schools, workplaces and amenities, people have the opportunity to manage their lives and raise their families.