A new report claims that low homeownership rates are poised to put additional pressure on Ontario’s already strained rental housing market.
According to the 2013 edition of Where’s Home?, released by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada), Ontario region, the rate of construction of purpose-built rental housing has not yet recovered from the collapse of the mid-90s, when the sector hit a 60-year low. The rental housing market will now face further strain with demand anticipated to increase by an additional 15,000 to 20,000 households per year.
“These factors will make Ontario’s current affordable housing crisis worse,” says Sharad Kerur, executive director of the ONPHA. “Growing competition for limited rental units will drive up rents, making it even harder for low and moderate income Ontarians to afford a roof overhead.”
The report notes that 20 per cent of Ontario households pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, or live in homes that are too small or in need of repair. They also live in these circumstances much longer than Canadians in other provinces.
To afford housing that’s the right size and in good repair, the average low income Ontario household needs an additional $290 per month (up from $240 per month in 2002), the report says.
“An investment of $3,500 to $4,000 per year would translate into big savings for the provincial and federal governments,” says Kerur. “It’s an investment in the future of Ontario that makes sense.”
Recent federal and provincial government programs have added approximately 1,500 affordable rental units per year since 2003, but Harvey Cooper, manager of government relations at CHF Canada, Ontario region, says Ontario lost 86,000 rental units between 1996 and 2006.
“Swelling demand for rental housing on top of the more than 156,000 households on social housing waiting lists means the provincial and federal governments can no longer depend on the private market to build new, affordable rental housing,” he says.
