One year ago, provincial and territorial governments began taking measures to address the plight of renters who were struggling to pay the rent, many falling into arrears and facing evictions. These measures have varied across the provinces and territories. Most have been quite modest in their support for tenants and were implemented only during the first few months of the pandemic, leaving many renters struggling to make ends meet as the pandemic continues to rage across the country.
Here we take a look at the available data that shows the scale of rental arrears and evictions during the pandemic across Canada, and the various provincial and territorial supports provided to residential renters.
An eviction ban was lifted on May 31, 2020. Tenants who have lost income because of the pandemic and have been evicted as a result of rental arrears can receive a 30-day extension on their eviction termination period from the date a notice of eviction was served to the tenant.
There is no data available on rental arrears or evictions in Nunavut, and there have been no announcements made by the Nunavut government concerning changes to rent or evictions during the pandemic.
One year ago, when the COVID-19 outbreak began, the World Health Organization urged all governments to implement comprehensive measures and recommendations for testing, contact tracing, physical distancing, and quarantining. Despite these calls, thousands of residents in overcrowded homes in Canada have been unable to safely quarantine or physically distance themselves from those who share their living space, putting everyone under these roofs at greater risk of contracting the virus.
While the negative impacts of living in overcrowded housing have been exacerbated by the pandemic, decades of unaffordable housing and poverty have been the main drivers leading people to double-up and crowd in together. Overcrowding is a symptom of what happens when the provision of rental housing is left to the private market, and the failure of our governments to ensure that the right to housing is realized for all people in Canada.
The housing affordability crisis that is driving overcrowded conditions and, as a result, increased exposure to a highly contagious and deadly virus is another systemic violation of the right to housing.
The United Nations defines an overcrowded housing unit as having the density of three or more persons situated per room under any circumstance. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) defines it in terms of whether a unit is ‘suitable’ to live in according to the National Occupancy Standard (NOS) which sets out a specific number of bedrooms corresponding to the size and make-up of residents in a household, as well as the level of affordability of an accommodation.
The NOS requirement is one bedroom for:
CMHC identifies the failure to meet these requirements, along with any major repairs needed, as an indication of unsuitable housing and core housing need. Given the scale at which overcrowding exists in Canada, as well as the people who are disproportionately impacted – low-income and racialized individuals – it is also a systemic barrier to the right to housing.
Under international human rights law, the ‘right to housing’ is recognized as the right of every person to a safe and secure home where they can live in security, peace and with dignity. A set of standards have also been recognized to ensure that a home is adequate for its inhabitants, including that it is affordable, secure, habitable, accessible, close to services, in an acceptable location, and culturally appropriate.
All of these standards apply to housing in Canada. The National Housing Strategy Act recognizes that housing is a human right, however this right has yet to be realized for many people across the country. Several groups of people face similar housing challenges, not because of their individual circumstances, but because they stem from the same root causes. These are ‘systemic barriers’, and the unaffordability of housing that causes overcrowding is one of the main barriers to realize the right to housing in particular for marginalized, low income and racialized households.
Across Canada, housing unaffordability and poverty remain the leading causes of overcrowded housing.
Between 2018 and 2019, average rental prices across Canada sprung up 3.9% for 2 bedroom apartments, which is the minimum size for a family. The average price for a family-sized apartment now starts at $2,416 in major cities like Toronto and in 2018 Statistics Canada reported that 20% of rental households in Toronto lived in overcrowded conditions. On average, only 7% of households in the lowest income bracket are able to find rental housing that they can afford.
Marginalized families who are financially strapped resort to living in multi-generational households with relatives, and statistics show that this is the reality for many racialized new-comers and Indigenous communities. This trend is especially acute in Toronto where there are three times as many racialized individuals living in overcrowded housing as compared to non-racialized individuals.
The pandemic has also added new challenges for individuals who live in overcrowded housing, as positive COVID-19 rates have been four times higher in neighborhoods with high levels of overcrowding.
In densely populated areas where the rent is very high, many residents – especially those with lower income – have limited housing options that they can afford, forcing some to seek smaller and cheaper places to live by doubling up and crowding into homes that are already at capacity. In Toronto, the areas most heavily affected by the pandemic are also those with most densely populated, with predominantly low income, new immigrant, and racialized households.
When a living space is too small, doesn’t have enough bedrooms, and is unsuitable for residents, individuals within a household may not be able to physically distance themselves or self-isolate. If any of those household members is an essential worker, the chances of them contracting and spreading COVID-19 within the household and community is even higher.
This is especially the case for racialized women, who are more likely to work in the lowest-paying jobs and in occupations that also put them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, including as janitors, cashiers, nursing assistants, and personal support workers.
Migrant farm workers in Southern Ontario are also reported to be more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of the crowded housing that their employers provide for them, and several COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant workers were reported in 2020. While the federal government outlined basic guidelines for migrant workers’ housing and physical distancing, it did not require proof from employers that the guidelines were being followed, and employer-provided housing is exempt from Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, meaning there is little recourse to address this issue among migrant workers.
In the fall of 2020, the Government of Canada announced funding for 140 new Voluntary Self-Isolation Centres in Toronto that people living in crowded homes who tested positive for COVID-19 could live in temporarily, and similar measures have been taken by other cities in Canada and the United States where overcrowded housing caused by unaffordability and poverty is also an issue.
However, these voluntary initiatives still require residents of overcrowded housing to choose to use these facilities, and the underlying causes of overcrowded housing which are contributing to a higher risk of COVID-19 spreading have not been addressed.
An unregulated private rental market that fails to provide adequate and appropriate housing options for people at affordable levels, and the lack of action from governments over decades to realize the right to housing have directly contributed to the housing challenges and increased risk of COVID-19 faced by residents of overcrowded housing today. Unless action is taken by all levels of government to progressively realize the right to housing in Canada, more and more people, predominantly those who are low income and facing marginalization, will be forced to live in overcrowded housing and face all the challenges that come along with it, during this pandemic and far beyond.
Even though it’s 2021, women continue to face a unique set of challenges to accessing adequate, accessible and affordable housing.
In this blog, in honour of International Women’s Day, we take a closer look at how gender-based violence, intersectional marginalization, poverty and extreme economic inequality, and the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic have worsened the systemic barriers that women face in housing and continue to jeopardize their right to adequate housing.
Under international human rights law, the ‘right to housing’ is recognized as the right of every person to a safe and secure home where they can live in security, peace and with dignity. A set of standards have also been recognized to ensure that a home is adequate for its inhabitants, including that it is affordable, secure, habitable, accessible, close to services, in an acceptable location, and culturally appropriate.
All of these standards apply to housing in Canada. The National Housing Strategy Act recognizes that housing is a human right, however this right has yet to be realized for many people across the country. Several groups of people face similar housing challenges, not because of their individual circumstances, but because they stem from the same root causes. These are ‘systemic barriers’, and there are several at play that deny the realization of the right to housing for women.
A violent home is not a safe home, and violence is one of the main drivers of women’s homelessness. According to the rights-based definition that housing must be safe and secure, violence in the home is a clear violation of the right to housing. Given that women account for 79% of those who experience violence by an intimate partner, domestic violence is also a systemic barrier to the realization of women’s right to housing.
Women who experience violence in their housing are at greater risk of remaining in unsafe situations, and are often forced to decide between staying in a violent home, or leaving and experiencing poverty or homelessness, sometimes with their children in tow. Some women who seek to leave an unsafe situation may not be able to find alternative housing that they can afford, and as a result may end up in the shelter system or living on the streets.
This is especially true for women with limited financial resources. In 2018, the Canadian Women’s Foundation estimated that 25% of women work part-time and make up about 70% of Canada’s part-time labour force, making women less likely to be able to afford safe and adequate housing on their own. It also found that women with children who leave their partners and become single parents are five times more likely to live in poverty than if they continued living with their partner.
In Ontario, the Special Priority Policy under the Housing Services Act, 2011 is supposed to safeguard victims of domestic violence from experiencing homelessness by prioritizing their applications for social housing. However, the Canadian Women’s Foundation reports that eligibility criteria which requires women to provide “proof” of violence can leave them at increased risk of staying in an unsafe situation while they attempt to document the violence. They make the case that a rights-based approach would prioritize women’ safety above these types of requirements.
An intersectional approach to address this systemic barrier to women’s right to housing is crucial given that rates and risk of violence are higher among racialized women, Indigenous women, LGBT individuals, and women living with disabilities.
In addition to experiencing higher rates of violence, women who experience multiple and intersecting forms of marginalization based on gender, race, ethnicity, social and economic status, and disability face the most deplorable housing conditions in Canada.
In 2020 the YWCA reported that many trans and non-binary individuals are at increased risk of violence at home, particularly Black and Indigenous trans women, and may also face barriers to accessing housing support through the shelter system which has been segregated by gender. Without housing that is specifically designed and dedicated for women and gender-diverse peoples, the cycles of homelessness, violence, and housing instability will be difficult to break.
Women with disabilities face significant discrimination when trying to access housing, as reported in a 2018 brief by the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University. In particular, landlords exclude them as applicants, evict them or fail to accommodate them for their disability-related needs. The brief also found that these experiences are compounded if the individual with a disability identifies as a woman, a racialized individual, trans, and/or has migrant or precarious status in Canada.
A 2008 study by the Centre for Urban & Community Studies at the University of Toronto demonstrated that migrant women without status are exceptionally vulnerable, and often live in dangerous conditions because of housing instability, poverty, and exploitation. Migrant women lack sufficient rights to secure safe and adequate housing in part because federal law does not guarantee the right to housing to all women regardless of citizenship. Non-status migrant women who are pregnant face additional challenges to access secure employment, which jeopardize their already precarious housing situations, and sometimes force them to enter family shelters.
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness found that contradictory and discriminatory policies and practices relating to social assistance, housing support, and child welfare present additional barriers to the right to housing for low-income women. They found that many social assistance systems cut entitlements for mothers when a child is taken away by child welfare, and this also puts her in a position of losing her housing. For women who are transitioning out of public institutions like healthcare systems or prisons, they found that there are insufficient supports available to ensure women can access housing that is affordable and meets their needs. These failures in the public system contribute to severe housing challenges and intergenerational cycles of marginalization, violence, housing instability, and homelessness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated the already worsening housing crisis in Canada. Women have been disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic, which have further contributed to their housing instability and have compounded the systemic barriers to their right to housing.
Income loss and job losses have been disproportionately experienced by women and lower income workers who predominantly rely on rental housing. More than 20,000 women left the workforce between February and October 2020, while about 68,000 men joined it. While women made up just under half of all paid workers in Canada, one month into the pandemic they accounted for two-thirds (63%) of all job losses, and 70% of all job losses among workers aged 25 to 54 years.
The loss of jobs and incomes has contributed to an arrears and evictions crisis across the country, and women are bearing the brunt of this crisis as they are forced to decide between paying rent or putting food on the table, which is especially difficult for single mothers and low-income workers. Racialized women have experienced additional impacts, as the YWCA reported that they earn approximately 58 cents for every dollar earned by non-racialized men, and they are more likely to work in the lowest-paying occupations that also put them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 including as janitors, cashiers, nursing assistants and personal support workers.
While emergency measures, restrictions and stay-at-home orders were issued in order to protect people from these health risks, these measures directly contributed to the sharp increase of a different kind of threat for women who were forced to remain in violent homes.
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) which represents over 70 shelters, reported that 20 percent of their organizations have experienced an increase in calls since the pandemic began, and calls to Nisa Homes, a transitional home for Muslim and immigrant women and children, doubled in the first few weeks of the pandemic. The Ending Violence Association of Canada reported that this has been especially the case for women with disabilities; Indigenous women; Black and racialized women; non-status, immigrant and refugee women; trans, non-binary, and gender diverse people; sex workers; and women experiencing economic and housing precarity.
The exacerbation of violence against women during the pandemic is a further violation of women’s right to housing, not only because the incidents of violence have increased, but also because it has increased women’s housing precarity during this time. As noted above, single-women led households are five times more likely to live in poverty than those in two-parent households, and they would have faced even greater difficulties escaping a violent home during the pandemic when many low-income women who lost their income or job would have had even fewer resources to dedicate to their housing. On top of this, women escaping a violent home would need to consider the health risks of increased exposure to the virus if they end up staying in a crowded shelter.
The barriers to the realization of women’s right to housing are multiple and complex, and removing them will require a comprehensive approach to address the systemic inequalities faced by women.
All governments have a big role to play to address and remedy the systemic barriers to women’s right to housing, and the Government of Canada has already formally committed to do so in its National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA). The NHSA also commits the federal government to progressively realize this right over time, and requires that affected groups are meaningfully engaged in the process, meaning that the government must work directly with women of all identities to support the realization of their right to housing.
There has never been a more urgent time for the federal government to act on its commitment. We need our governments to ramp up housing supports and services to protect women – particularly racialized women, trans and non-binary individuals, women with disabilities, and migrant women – who are increasingly vulnerable to homelessness, unsafe housing, and systemic violations of their right to adequate housing.
Submission to:
In our submission, we are writing to urge the federal government to allocate funding for rental households who face the loss of their housing through eviction due to income loss and the accumulation of rental arrears. We are also urging the government to enact a program designed to acquire and preserve existing affordable rental housing.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, ON – February 18, 2021 – Housing advocates across the country assert that there is an important role the federal government can play to advance the right to housing and to ensure that no one loses their home during the pandemic.
A group of over 120 experts from diverse backgrounds – including tenant groups and associations, academics, advocates, and people with lived experience with eviction and homelessness – have come together and concluded that the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) provides the federal government with an avenue through which it can directly address the arrears and evictions crisis facing residential tenants.
Through this collaboration, a new proposal to provide tenants with rental assistance to pay off arrears accumulated as a result of an unaffordable rent-to-income ratio during the pandemic has been submitted to the federal government by the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) and the National Right to Housing Network (NRHN), for consideration in its 2021 budget consultation process that is currently underway.
Under the proposed Residential Tenant Support Benefit, tenants who meet the qualification criteria would receive a benefit payment to restore their rent-to-income ratio and reduce their 2020 rent burden back to the level that they were paying prior to the pandemic.
Across the country, tens of thousands of residential tenants have lost their jobs and incomes, have struggled to pay unaffordable rent for months, and are now facing eviction. The number of people at risk of losing their home because of unpaid rent, known as ‘arrears’, has reached a crisis level.
While the federal government has acted to prevent eviction of commercial tenants during the pandemic, minimal action has been taken to address the plight of residential tenants.
The NHSA affirms that the Government of Canada recognizes the right to housing as a fundamental human right, and commits to progressively realize this right over time – and there has never been a more urgent moment for the federal government to take the next steps to support tenants.
“We need all of our governments to address this crisis with urgency and with appropriate resources,” said Alyssa Brierley, Executive Director of CCHR. “The federal government has already made a
commitment to realize the right to housing. Now it’s time to put that commitment into action to make sure that no Canadian is faced with losing their home during the pandemic.”
Eviction is a serious assault on dignity, security and may place health and life at risk. Through prompt intervention, the federal government can help vulnerable Canadians to avoid eviction, displacement and personal catastrophe.
“I am a person who has not only experienced lengthy homelessness, I also suffered housing loss 2 years later while also having the responsibility of caring for my partner who suffered with mental health disabilities,” said Al Wiebe, Co-Chair of the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network and Director of Programming at Of No Fixed Address. “The trauma is over-whelming. One cannot underestimate the terror that eviction brings.”
Those at risk are some of the most vulnerable individuals and households: low-income individuals, many of whom are the “front-line heroes” praised by all levels of government throughout the pandemic, persons with disabilities, Black, Indigenous and other persons of colour, newcomers to Canada and other individuals, often with intersecting barriers to full participation in Canadian society.
“In the north temperatures can reach down to -50 or more. There needs to be another solution so that we are not evicting people and causing more homelessness in Canada’s Arctic,” said Janine Harvey, a Steering Committee member of the National Right to Housing Network Steering Committee. “Homelessness contributes to poverty, poor hygiene, social issues such as suicide, and a lack of interest for education and work.”
The submission by CCHR and NRHN is a concrete and comprehensive proposal that details the qualification criteria, application process, how funds could be transferred, and a sample calculation to determine the benefit amount based on a rent-to-income ratio case study. It now sits with the federal government to review and take up in its 2021 budget.
Quick facts:
Media contact:
Shelley Buckingham
Senior Advisor – Communications and Public Affairs, Canadian Centre for Housing Rights
Tel: 416-944-0087
Email: shelley [at] equalityrights.org
Like many cities across Canada, Toronto is in the midst of a housing crisis that has been made worse by COVID-19.
As the pandemic rages on and housing challenges become increasingly more acute and widespread, we continue to keep our eyes set on how the right to housing is advancing in the City of Toronto. One of the principal ways they can do that is by establishing the Office of the Housing Commissioner.
How would a Housing Commissioner help to address the housing crisis in Toronto?
For years, housing advocates have raised the alarm over systemic issues that are contributing to a decades-long housing crisis. Ultimately, all levels of government have the power and responsibility to address these issues, and a rights-based approach to housing policy is the best way they can do that.
We need governments to step up in a big way, and Toronto City Council did that in 2019 when it became the first municipality in Canada to commit to progressively realize the right to housing through its ten-year HousingTO plan. The Housing Commissioner would be one of the City’s best allies to help them achieve this goal.
Since 2019, housing advocates – including CERA and the Right to Housing Toronto Network – have provided the City with recommendations grounded in human rights expertise to shape its policy. The right to housing is a new framework for the City, and it needs to equip itself with the appropriate tools to carry out its task.
The Housing Commissioner would be one of those tools. It would be the expert in the room, guaranteeing that the City would be given rights-based recommendations and advice when their plans may need adjusting, and to keep them on the right track over the next ten years.
What would a Housing Commissioner do?
The City’s HousingTO plan outlines the functions of the Housing Commissioner:
“[The] Housing Commissioner of Toronto will work with City divisions, agencies, boards and commissions to review housing programs and policies to ensure that they align with and advance the principles expressed in the Toronto Housing Charter and support their implementation over the next decade. Additionally, the Housing Commissioner of Toronto will monitor the progress in consultation with groups vulnerable to housing insecurity and report annually to City Council regarding systemic issues related to the City’s compliance with the Toronto Housing Charter.”
In essence, the Commissioner would be empowered with a mandate to support the City in fulfilling its commitment to realize the right to housing. The City has set itself several laudable goals that aim to address the housing crisis through a rights-based approach, and the Housing Commissioner will play a key function to hold the City accountable to meet those goals. In other words, the Housing Commissioner is an accountability mechanism, and one of the key ways to ensure that the City’s goal to realize the right is housing is actually achieved and doesn’t remain as an aspiration on paper only.
Specifically, the Commissioner would:
What needs to happen next to establish the Office?
In 2019, City Council directed the City Manager to establish the Housing Commissioner in 2020, in consultation with human rights experts. Despite making some important progress on other areas of its HousingTO plan, the City’s timeline for the Housing Commissioner has been pushed into 2021. No specific implementation date or update on its current status has been released to date.
We will continue to closely watch when and how the City will move this item forward. We will also take every opportunity to provide the City with our recommendations to establish the Commissioner in a way that ensures it can effectively carry out its mandate, including by providing it with an appropriately resourced office to complete its work. To that end, it is crucial that the Commissioner’s Office is adequately resourced and is set up to operate independently, despite reporting to City Council, so that it operates in the spirit of public accountability.
In light of the worsening housing crisis in Toronto, we look forward to seeing this office take shape in 2021 and prioritized at upcoming City Council meetings.
UPDATE: On June 2, 2021, the stay-at-home order was lifted and the enforcement of evictions in Ontario resumed.
On January 13, 2021 the Ontario government announced a temporary pause on evictions that will be in effect for the duration of the current state of emergency.
This is a key relief for tenants in Ontario, as thousands have lost jobs and incomes since the start of the pandemic and have been struggling to pay rent for months.
This pause on evictions is a temporary measure. Sign up to receive our emails and we will update you about future changes to eviction processes in Ontario.
1. There is a pause on evictions
As of January 13, 2021, most residential evictions have been paused. This includes evictions that were ordered before January 13th, but not yet carried out.
2. Landlords can continue to give tenants eviction notices
Your landlord can still give you an eviction notice during the state of emergency. This includes if you are unable to pay your rent or if you do not pay your rent.
➤ What to do if you receive an eviction notice:
3. The Landlord and Tenant Board will continue to hold eviction hearings
The Landlord and Tenant Board will continue to schedule and hold eviction hearings throughout the state of emergency. This includes eviction hearings for tenants who are unable to pay their rent.
What to do if you have an eviction hearing:
4. The Landlord and Tenant Board will continue to issue eviction orders
The Landlord and Tenant Board will continue to issue eviction orders throughout the state of emergency. This includes eviction orders that can be issued without a hearing taking place at the Landlord and Tenant Board. This means you might receive an eviction order from the Landlord and Tenant Board, even during the state of emergency.
What to do if you receive an eviction order:
Additional information:
We’re ringing in the new year on a much different note. As several provinces have recently gone into another round of lockdowns, more people will join the thousands who are still reeling from the loss of their jobs or incomes last year, struggling to make ends meet and maintain stable housing.
Despite the many challenges that 2020 brought, we are still several steps ahead than we were a year ago. As we look forward, here are 4 key developments that we’re looking out for that will advance the right to housing in Canada in 2021.
1. Stepping up government support for renters during the pandemic
While little support was earmarked for renters in 2020, the need for relief only continues to intensify. One of the most critical and immediate measures needed right now during the current wave of lockdowns and as more people lose their jobs and incomes is a moratorium on evictions, which provinces across the country have so far failed to reinstate.
In particular, we are keeping an eye on Premier Doug Ford to sign an executive order to implement the moratorium which was unanimously recommended with full-party support in a motion passed by the Ontario Legislature on December 8th. [UPDATE: A temporary pause on evictions in Ontario was put in place on January 13, 2021. Read more.]
Along with the moratorium, we will also continue to decry the serious human rights and justice issues at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board until they come to an end.
If provinces continue to be complacent in the face of the rising evictions crisis, we will be looking to municipalities and the federal government to act with the urgency that this crisis demands. Although housing laws are under provincial jurisdiction, governments at the municipal and federal levels can also step up to support tenants in different ways. For instance, the federal government could provide provinces with conditional funding that is locked into eviction prevention measures. Or, municipalities could expand their own services to support renters directly, like Toronto’s Rent Bank and Eviction Prevention in the Community (EPIC) programs.
2021 is a crucial year for governments to throw their full weight behind renters, especially at these critical moments of the pandemic.
2. Meeting the first Federal Housing Advocate with a strong background in the right to housing
Once again this year, we continue to monitor how the federal government is advancing the National Housing Strategy, and its commitment to progressively realize the right to housing across the country. In 2020, the government made some important progress by appointing the National Housing Council, and committed to expedite the creation of 3,000 new affordable housing units by March 2021 in response to the urgency of the housing crisis made worse by the pandemic.
One area where we expect some movement in 2021 is the appointment of Canada’s first Federal Housing Advocate, as the recruitment process is currently underway. Most importantly, we are interested in who the government appoints to assume this key position.
The Housing Advocate will carry out an important mandate to advance the right to housing, and it is crucial that the chosen candidate has a strong background in the right to housing so that this individual is well-positioned to carry out the functions of the role through a rights-based approach. Stay tuned in the months to come for the announcement and our reaction to who will assume this role.
3. Establishing the Office of the Housing Commissioner in Toronto
As the only municipality in Canada so far to have made a commitment to progressively realize the right to housing, we continue keeping a watchful eye on how Toronto will move forward, in particular by establishing the Office of the Housing Commissioner.
In September 2020, the City of Toronto released its HousingTO Implementation Plan 2020-2030 with details on how it intends to address affordable housing and homelessness over the next ten years. While the City has outlined some laudable goals, we have yet to see any movement to establish the Office of the Housing Commissioner which was a cornerstone of the City’s commitment.
The Housing Commissioner is key to hold the City accountable and to ensure that it implements a housing policy with the correct measures and targets in place, that are truly grounded in a rights-based approach. The Commissioner would also play a key role in making recommendations that guide the City toward sustainable and effective housing policies going forward.
Not only will we be closely watching how and when the City will move this item forward, we will also be taking every opportunity to provide our recommendations to establish this office in a way that ensures it can operate with independence and adequate resources so that it can effectively carry out its mandate.
In light of the worsening housing crisis in Toronto, we will remain expectant to see this office take shape in 2021.
4. Expanding the implementation of the right to housing across Canada
One thing we can be sure of in 2021 is that – through our project with the National Right to Housing Network – community leaders, lived experts and policy advocates will continue to work together to identify systemic violations of the right to housing, propose solutions to claim the right to housing and influence systemic change.
This year, we will bring together leaders, experts and advocates from across the country to dive deeper into the mechanisms available under the National Housing Strategy Act that can be used to claim the right to housing.
Stay tuned for opportunities to join this work in 2021 by subscribing to our newsletter.
2020 was a difficult year.
In January, we came off a history-making year that saw both the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto recognize the right to housing and commit to taking a rights-based approach in their housing policy. We had been gearing up to continue pushing the right to housing agenda forward when the world changed in March with the outbreak of COVID-19.
As we near the end of 2020, thousands of people are facing potential eviction and homelessness as the pandemic rages on. Realizing the right to adequate, accessible and affordable housing has never been more urgent or essential.
Here we take stock of some of the biggest right to housing developments of 2020.
1. COVID-19 deeply impacted renters and people experiencing homelessness
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated economic and social inequalities across the world, and the impacts on renters have been significant. Like many countries, Canada has been in the midst of a deepening housing crisis for years, and the context was already bleak when the pandemic arrived. When several provinces went into lockdown in March, thousands of renters who lost their job or income were suddenly struggling to pay rent and vulnerable to eviction as a result.
Provincial moratoriums on eviction were swiftly put in place in March, and while these measures provided some initial relief from an immediate threat of eviction, they were ultimately short-lived. One by one, moratoriums were lifted prematurely, in some provinces as early as May, even though thousands had not yet recovered their income or employment. Since then, advocates have called for a moratorium to be reinstated, including in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia. Ontario came close when a motion was unanimously passed by the Legislature on December 8, and now all eyes are on Premier Doug Ford to sign an executive order to implement the moratorium. For months, advocates in Ontario also raised the alarm over serious human rights and justice issues at the Landlord and Tenant Board, as thousands of eviction hearings have been rushed through and some people have lost their homes in a matter of minutes.
Meanwhile, people experiencing homelessness were also uniquely impacted by the pandemic, as shelters reduced the number of beds available to follow physical distancing requirements. The congregate settings in shelters led some people to look for other environments to sleep that they considered safer, like in encampments which sprung up in city parks and other outdoor spaces across the country. In response, municipalities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and London sought solutions to keep people safe and housed during the pandemic, moving hundreds of people living in homelessness into vacant hotels, modular housing and other temporary housing.
Hearing reports from the ground of safety, human rights and justice concerns in encampments and evictions across Toronto, advocates with R2HTO (the Right to Housing Toronto Network) provided the City with recommendations to align its approaches with its commitment to realize the right to housing.
2. The National Housing Strategy inched forward
The Government of Canada made several announcements related to housing and homelessness in their highly-anticipated Speech from the Throne on September 23. Among these announcements were new details about the government’s funding commitments, including a goal to accelerate the creation of 3,000 affordable housing units across the country by March 2021 – a critical addition to the housing stock that will be made through the Rapid Housing Initiative.
Another signal that the federal government is making progress on its National Housing Strategy was through the appointment of Canada’s first National Housing Council, announced on November 22. The Council has a mandate to advance the government’s housing policy and National Housing Strategy, which includes the progressive realization of the right to housing.
At the same time, the federal government launched its search to fill a key position with a mandate to advance the National Housing Strategy – the Federal Housing Advocate. This position will be responsible for monitoring, assessing, reporting, and making recommendations on the right to housing across Canada. This is a new role which has yet to be filled, and the government is currently seeking qualified candidates with applications due on December 30, 2020.
3. New legislation in Ontario weakened tenants’ rights
In July 2020 the Ontario government passed Bill 184, which makes several amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act. Housing advocates raised concerns about the negative impacts that this bill will have on tenants and their rights, which we know will be disproportionally felt by marginalized Ontarians – individuals who are low-income, racialized, newcomers to Canada, youth, and persons with disabilities.
Bill 184 weakens tenants’ rights and makes it easier to evict people by effectively stripping protections from tenants and undermining access to justice. Amendments under Bill 184 also impact tenants financially and widen the power imbalance between landlords and renters.
In a time when tenants need support from our governments the most, this new legislation makes life tangibly more difficult for already-disadvantaged individuals. This bill also made it all the more evident that Ontario renters have remained a low policy priority once again this year.
4. The City of Toronto reinforced its commitment to the right to housing, and we are still waiting for a Housing Commissioner
In December 2019 we celebrated the City of Toronto becoming the first municipality in Canada to commit to a rights-based approach in its housing policy. Nine months later, the City released its HousingTO Implementation Plan 2020-2030 containing the first details of how it intends to address affordable housing and homelessness over the next ten years.
One laudable goal in their plan is the creation of 40,000 new affordable housing units in the city with specific targets to provide affordable housing for individuals most in need, including people experiencing homelessness, youth, seniors, people with physical and developmental disabilities, indigenous households, and girls- and women-led households.
While the City’s plan is a good next step to realize its commitments, key details including timelines and concrete dates, as well as additional resources, are needed to better understand how and when the City will reach the targets it has set for itself. We have identified the good and the gaps that we’ll be keeping an eye on as plans continue taking shape in 2021.
We had also hoped the City would establish the Office of the Housing Commissioner in 2020, which is a centerpiece of the City’s HousingTO plan. The purpose of the Housing Commissioner is to hold the City accountable to its commitment to realize the right to housing. The timeline has been pushed back to 2021, and we are eagerly awaiting news on how this office will take shape and to see a budget commitment made to support its work. Ensuring independent accountability for a rights-based approach to housing policy could not be more urgent as the City continues to respond to an unprecedented global pandemic that has disproportionately affected some of our most marginalized citizens.
5. New seeds were planted to claim the right to housing across Canada
In the fall, CCHR and the National Right to Housing Network kicked off a new initiative working with communities across Canada to identify systemic violations of the right to housing, propose solutions and influence systemic changes in the housing landscape. Policy advocates, community leaders and lived experts across the country came together for two online working group meetings, contributing their collective knowledge and experience to propose solutions to address the deepening housing crisis facing so many communities.
These meetings planted new seeds that will support communities to engage with and benefit from rights-based housing policy, in particular the National Housing Strategy. Stay tuned for opportunities to engage in this initiative in 2021.
2020 has been a challenging year. The impacts of COVID-19 have pushed housing issues to the forefront while the housing and evictions crisis escalated to new heights.
As many Canadians continue to grapple with income loss, financial instability and housing insecurity, 2021 will be a crucial year to advance the right to housing. At CCHR, we’ll continue working with communities, advocates and governments to push this important agenda forward and we hope you will join us in this work.
For much of the year, our homes have been our whole worlds. It’s where many of us worked, shopped, had Zoom calls with friends and family, and helped our kids get through math class. While some Canadians were adjusting to doing nearly everything from home, others were suddenly facing the possibility of losing theirs through a traumatizing life event – eviction.
Two million Ontarians lost their jobs or their income when the province went into lockdown. At CCHR, we have fielded countless stories of how this has affected the ability of people in our communities to pay their rent.
Like Sebastian, who fell behind on rent after suddenly losing his job in April. He called CCHR in a panic when his landlord told him to pay up or immediately move his family out.
Or Jin, who was laid off in May and was terrified by a threatening eviction notice. She didn’t understand the law and didn’t know where to go for help, until she found our hotline.
Then there’s Ana, who faced the impossible choice of feeding her kids or paying her rent after her work hours were cut in half. Paralyzed with fear and anxiety at the prospect of losing her home, she called CCHR in desperation just the day before her eviction hearing.
Fortunately, our case workers were there to take Sebastian, Jin and Ana’s calls, informing them about their rights, how the eviction process works, and connecting them with legal assistance, financial aid, and counselling services.
We field calls from dozens of people in similar circumstances each month, guiding 90% of them to a positive outcome. In the past two months, the number of people we’ve heard from has doubled, overwhelming our capacity to respond. We are now deeply worried we won’t be able to help hundreds more keep their homes as the pandemic carries on.
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