Gender-based violence (GBV) and intimate partner/interpersonal violence (IPV) are pervasive problems impacting millions of women and gender-diverse people across Canada, especially Indigenous women, gender-diverse people, women with disabilities and newcomer women, who are disproportionately impacted.
The report presents key findings from our research with service providers and survivors of GBV and IPV along with an analysis of local housing market conditions in five communities in Ontario: Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough, Thunder Bay and Lanark County. Our findings illustrate the ways in which the ongoing crisis of housing affordability in Ontario is impacting survivors’ pathways out of contexts in which they are experiencing violence, and provide greater clarity on the range of solutions needed to ensure that all women and gender-diverse people can find a safe home, free from violence.
Summary of findings:
- Unaffordable housing is a significant barrier for survivors: High housing costs are a significant impediment for anyone leaving a context in which they are experiencing violence, and when they are leaving emergency or second-stage shelters. Some 79 per cent of survey respondents reported that high housing costs in Ontario’s housing market were a barrier to leaving a residence in which they were experiencing violence.
- Survivors are facing a high degree of housing insecurity that originates from their experiences of GBV and is compounded by Ontario’s housing affordability crisis: Survivors are also experiencing a high degree of housing insecurity when they leave emergency shelters. Many are returning to live with abusers or are ending up in other insecure living arrangements. 65 per cent percent of survey respondents reported experiencing housing insecurity when they left emergency shelter housing.
- Many survivors are either remaining in unsafe housing with their abusers or are returning to live with their abusers after having left, because of a lack of available housing options: 17 per cent of survey respondents reported returning to live with an abusive partner upon leaving emergency shelter housing.
- Survivors are facing a high degree of discrimination in seeking housing in the private rental market: This is particularly based on race, Indigeneity, gender, sexual orientation, disability and receipt of social assistance. 42 per cent of survey respondents reported experiencing discrimination in searching for rental housing in the private market.
- Survivors are facing significant barriers to accessing private rental market housing: Only 10 per cent of survey respondents who had accessed emergency shelter housing reported finding housing in the private rental housing market.
- Existing shelter, income and other community supports are inadequate or are not meeting the diverse needs of survivors: There are gaps in service availability or appropriate services for people with disabilities, gender-diverse people, newcomers to Canada, Indigenous people and survivors with children. These gaps are more acute in mid-sized, smaller and rural communities. Provincial programming designed to prioritize access to social housing for survivors does not currently result in them being housed. None of the survey respondents reported accessing social housing after leaving emergency shelter housing through the Special Priority Policy (SPP).
- Experiencing GBV and related housing insecurity in smaller and more rural communities poses unique challenges to survivors: A lack of transit options limits where survivors can secure new housing and poses additional challenges and expenses for survivors in trying to carry out the necessary activities of daily life. A lack of anonymity in smaller communities can create challenges for securing housing that is not connected to a survivor’s abuser. For example, it can be challenging to find housing where the landlord is not known by a survivor’s abuser so that the location of the survivor’s housing can be kept private.
Policy recommendations:
Based on the findings of this research, CCHR has developed the following policy recommendations that aim to improve the housing conditions for survivors through greater affordability measures, improving the provision of services and supports, addressing discrimination, prioritizing those in greatest need and adopting an inclusive and anti-colonialist approach.
Click on the topics below to read all of our recommendations.
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Affordability measures
- Increase the supply of social housing: The federal and provincial governments should create more social housing that is protected from market forces and provides permanent and sustainable affordable housing, with rents that are subsidized to ensure affordability based on income, and not at market rates that are also out of reach for many survivors. These units must also be adequate and suitable for different family compositions to protect families from instances where children are apprehended by children’s aid societies due to unsuitable housing. Indigenous households and households that are run by single parents with disabilities experience disproportionately high rates of child apprehension based on unsuitable housing. Although some recent federal funding announcements in the Canada Housing Plan presented in April 2024 are meant to support affordable housing, the majority of the funding is directed towards private market incentives intended to build more housing that will not be affordable to communities most in need, such as people fleeing a context of GBV/IPV.
In addition to more investments in social housing, all levels of government must collaborate to ensure that more affordable and non-profit housing options are created. The provincial government should work with municipalities to encourage the development of non-profit and co-operative housing to provide more affordable housing options for lower-income households.
- Attach affordability requirements to funding for private sector developers: Most of the federal government’s recent funding commitments have been directed towards the private market to build more supply, following the logic that the creation of more housing supply will lower rental prices. However, studies have shown that more rental supply does not guarantee more affordable housing. We therefore recommend that government support for private sector rental housing development be conditional on affordability requirements that are co-developed with affected groups and that meet the needs of lower-income renters.
- Expand programs that preserve affordable housing: It is estimated that for every affordable unit that is created in Canada, 16 affordable units are lost. The federal government should expand programs to preserve affordable housing. This includes the Canada Rental Protection Fund which was recently announced to support non-profit organizations and other partners in identifying and purchasing affordable private market buildings at risk of rent increases and renter displacement, so that they can maintain tenancies and keep rents affordable in those units over the long term.
- Amend the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) to increase affordability: Ontario has some rent regulation measures in place, however there are significant exemptions that apply to residential units that were first occupied after November 15, 2018. For those units, landlords can increase the rent for existing tenants on a yearly basis by amount they like. In addition, vacancy decontrol allows landlords to increase the rent for new tenants by any amount they like. These current measures contribute to the lack of affordable housing options. To address this issue in the short term, legislative changes should be made to the RTA to remove the exemption to rent regulation, and implement vacancy control measures, so that rents can be affordable for renters when they rent a new unit and remain affordable in the long term.
- Address the financialization of housing: The financialization of housing is a key driver of the housing affordability crisis. Measures should be implemented to address the financialization of housing and real estate speculation, including a targeted capital gains tax, rigorous affordability requirements for newly acquired rental housing, prevention of renovictions and unwarranted rent increases, restrictions on large-scale acquisitions of rental housing stock, and providing the right of first refusal of any purchase of rental housing to local governments or non-profit organizations who will develop social or affordable housing.
- Increase the supply of social housing: The federal and provincial governments should create more social housing that is protected from market forces and provides permanent and sustainable affordable housing, with rents that are subsidized to ensure affordability based on income, and not at market rates that are also out of reach for many survivors. These units must also be adequate and suitable for different family compositions to protect families from instances where children are apprehended by children’s aid societies due to unsuitable housing. Indigenous households and households that are run by single parents with disabilities experience disproportionately high rates of child apprehension based on unsuitable housing. Although some recent federal funding announcements in the Canada Housing Plan presented in April 2024 are meant to support affordable housing, the majority of the funding is directed towards private market incentives intended to build more housing that will not be affordable to communities most in need, such as people fleeing a context of GBV/IPV.
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Provision of services and supports
- Fund targeted programs for women and gender-diverse people, while reducing barriers to access: When the National Housing Strategy (NHS) was launched in 2017, it incorporated a gender-based analysis plus lens (GBA+) and identified women and children fleeing violence as a prioritized group. At the time, the federal government made a commitment to dedicate 25 per cent of NHS investments to housing initiatives for women and girls. Seven years into the implementation of the NHS, significant gender equity gaps have been found in the investments and programs, and programs have largely failed to meet the needs of women and gender-diverse people fleeing violence.
For example, the largest funding program, now called the Apartment Construction Loan Program, has not set any specific requirements that any amount of funding be dedicated to providing housing for women and girls. There are no funding programs that target women and people fleeing GBV/IPV, while only two of the NHS funding programs mention housing for vulnerable populations. These programs have therefore failed to meet the housing needs of women and women-led families.
Other issues include a lack of investment in emergency homeless shelters and beds for women and gender-diverse people across the country, with the majority of funding invested in men’s shelters. Small organizations, non-profits, housing providers and service providers that focus on women have also reported barriers in accessing capital investment programs that are available. Barriers include being unaware of the funding available, the prohibitive cost of applying for funding, or not being eligible for funding due to existing agreements with the province or territory. These organizations have the best understanding of the needs of the women and gender-diverse people they serve, and these barriers limit their ability to expand their support and housing. The federal government’s recently announced Housing Action Plan did not include targeted funding programs for women and gender-diverse people.
To address these issues, programs under the NHS need to be redesigned to include funding streams that target the creation of genuinely affordable housing that meets the needs of women and gender-diverse people, womenled households, and women and gender-diverse people who are fleeing GBV/ IPV. Barriers that prevent organizations from accessing existing funding should be removed and the application processes must be streamlined. Investments in emergency shelters and shelter beds for women and gender-diverse people need to be increased.
- Expand funding and criteria for the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB): The COHB was launched in 2020 to support households experiencing housing need. The amounts given under the benefit have long been insufficient, and that is especially the case now as people contend with higher housing and food costs.7 People have also reported experiencing limited access to the benefit and facing barriers accessing rental housing when using it. Benefit levels should be increased to meet the actual need of households. It is also recommended that the program be made more accessible and the criteria more flexible. Specifically, people should be allowed to remain on the waitlist for subsidized housing while they access the COHB, and recipients of social assistance should have access to COHB. Finally, the federal and provincial governments, who jointly fund COHB, should commit to funding the program for a specific period, to provide survivors with clarity on how long they can expect to receive the benefit and prepare for when they will stop receiving it.
- Change the definition of homelessness in current programs to include hidden homelessness and survivors who are unable to leave contexts in which they are experiencing GBV/IPV: Canada’s largest funding program to address homelessness, called Reaching Home, has prioritized addressing chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness focuses on measuring homelessness data based on shelter occupancy, visible homelessness, and people not having a permanent address for a period of time. This definition does not capture the hidden homelessness that survivors experience to high degrees either before or after accessing emergency shelters. It also does not include survivors who are forced to remain in residences in which they are experiencing violence because there is nowhere else for them to go. Reaching Home and other government programs should change the definition of homelessness to include hidden homelessness and survivors who are forced to remain in housing with their abusers, so that the programming reflects the lived experience of survivors. This would enable survivors’ needs to be addressed and for them to access the services and benefits currently reserved for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
- Increase investments in existing services: More funding should be provided to existing shelters and services to address challenges serving people fleeing GBV/ IPV, such as difficulties with staff retention due to inadequate pay and burn out, and a lack of beds and space to host beds.
- Create second-stage shelters in smaller communities: The research showed that in smaller communities, there are limited beds in violence against women (VAW) shelters, limited and in some instances no emergency shelters specific to women and gender-diverse people, and that women and gender-diverse people do not feel safe accessing co-ed shelters. Many gender-diverse people also do not feel safe accessing VAW shelters or women’s shelters. Further, in these communities there is limited second-stage shelter housing for survivors. While the long-term goal is to have affordable housing options so that people fleeing GBV/IPV can secure permanent safe housing, more second-stage shelters need to be created in smaller communities to address the interim and immediate needs of people who need to leave a situation in which they are experiencing GBV/IPV.
- Increase social assistance rates: Social assistance rates for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and the Ontario Works (OW) program have not increased significantly in Ontario in many years and have not kept up with inflation or the actual cost of living. This is a barrier that prevents survivors from securing safe and affordable housing. Rates must be increased to provide benefit amounts that are commensurate with real housing costs.
- Reduce barriers in accessing social assistance: Survivors face barriers to accessing ODSP and OW. For example, survivors are sometimes arrested and charged when they respond to their abuser and defend themselves. While they are incarcerated, they stop receiving their benefit and may lose their housing as a result. Regulations must be changed to close this gap which can drive survivors into homelessness. Further, some individuals face barriers in accessing their benefits if they have not filed their taxes. Individuals who are particularly vulnerable should be able to access benefits if they have not completed their taxes so that they can address their immediate needs. Automatic tax filing programs should be considered for groups with higher needs. Though the federal government has introduced a limited automatic tax filing program (Majors 2024), the program should be made available to more communities in need.
- Amend the Special Priority Policy (SPP) application process: The report details how the onerous requirements of the SPP application process for subsidized housing creates barriers to accessing it. The application process should be amended to reflect the actual experiences and pathways taken by survivors to escape violence. This includes less onerous requirements around documentation, extending the timeframe within which people can apply beyond the current three months, and amending the criteria to reflect the instances in which a survivor may not have been living with an abuser but may still be unsafe in their current housing and need to leave.
- Reduce barriers to accessing subsidized housing: The research shows that the requirements for accessing subsidized housing create barriers to accessing housing for survivors. Changes should be made to remove these barriers, including not removing people from the waitlist if they do not update their information. People on the waitlist should be contacted if any information needs to be updated. The onus should not be on the survivors and other communities to update this information, and they should not be penalized by being removed from the waitlist as a result.
- Introduce safe at home programming: Given the risk of homelessness and precarious housing that women and gender-diverse people fleeing GBV/IPV experience, as well as the disruption to the lives of families and children, provincial governments should consider introducing “Safe at Home” programming. Through the combination of legal tools, wrap around supports and other safety measures, these programs work to remove the abuser from the home and allow the survivors and their families to remain housed and be safe. These programs have been successful in communities in the United Kingdom and Australia. The government should work with the necessary partners to explore introducing Safe at Home programming in communities in Ontario.
- Collect more data in rural and remote areas: The research shows that despite the high levels of homelessness in remote communities such as Lanark County, there are significant gaps in the data that provide information on the depth of housing and homelessness challenges. Data gathering is an important step in identifying the housing needs and homelessness challenges experienced by disadvantaged groups, including survivors. Strong and accurate data that reflects the experiences of women and gender-diverse people can help governments develop more targeted solutions and programming. Data collection methods and tools can be developed by local governments in partnership with local organizations serving communities. Data collection should be disaggregated based on gender, and collection methods should include women and gender diverse people who are experiencing hidden homelessness. Additionally, data collection within Indigenous communities should be Indigenous-led.
- Fund targeted programs for women and gender-diverse people, while reducing barriers to access: When the National Housing Strategy (NHS) was launched in 2017, it incorporated a gender-based analysis plus lens (GBA+) and identified women and children fleeing violence as a prioritized group. At the time, the federal government made a commitment to dedicate 25 per cent of NHS investments to housing initiatives for women and girls. Seven years into the implementation of the NHS, significant gender equity gaps have been found in the investments and programs, and programs have largely failed to meet the needs of women and gender-diverse people fleeing violence.
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Addressing discrimination
- Establish monitoring and enforcement mechanisms: The provincial government should establish a system for monitoring, investigating, and meaningfully enforcing Human Rights Code protections related to housing. The role of the Rental Housing Enforcement Unit can be strengthened and expanded as part of this initiative.
- Provide no-fee guarantor services to support survivors: In many instances, a lack of credit history or guarantor acts as a barrier to survivors in accessing housing, especially in the instance that they have experienced financial abuse or if they are coming from an Indigenous reserve. Knowing this, the federal and provincial governments should establish no-fee guarantor services to support survivors in accessing housing in the private rental market.
- Investigate the scope of discrimination: The provincial government should fund and undertake initiatives to investigate the nature, scope, and impact of discriminatory housing practices against survivors and other equity-deserving groups across the province, to develop targeted programs and solutions.
- Restore funding to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: The provincial government should increase funding to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to ensure that it can deal with complaints of discrimination in an adequate and timely manner.
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Inclusive and anti-colonialist considerations
- Increase targeted services for groups in greatest need: This research reveals that there is a need for more services and shelters that target 2SLGBTQA+ people, newcomers, people with disabilities, and Indigenous women, particularly in remote and rural areas. The federal government’s Reaching Home funding stream can be used to create more specialized shelters and services. There is currently an Indigenous Homelessness stream within Reaching Home which funds Indigenous organizations located in urban centers, and some Self-Governing First Nations and national or regional representatives of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. That program should be expanded to provide more support to Indigenous service providers, including in rural and remote areas. Although the federal government should prioritize creating permanent affordable and supportive housing that is accessible to survivors, investments in targeted emergency services are also needed to meet their urgent needs in the short term.
- Increase accessible housing: The research has shown that survivors who require accessibility modifications in their housing due to a disability have fewer housing options in an unaffordable market. The federal and provincial governments must therefore invest more in creating accessible housing options that will also be affordable in the long term. For instance, this can be done at the federal level by including targets for accessible housing units in the funding streams for affordable housing. When the government invests in social housing, it should invest in the creation of new units that employ the principals of universal design.
- Be alert to the experiences of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people: In developing solutions, policymakers must be alert to unique experiences of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. Violence against Indigenous women is a major crisis in Canada, and they are more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women. Indigenous women and gender-diverse people experience structural violence because of settler-colonialism. Settler-colonial policies have created cultural disruptions that have resulted in an increased risk of GBV. These policies continue to be interwoven into today’s political and economic fabric. Indigenous People also experience disproportionately higher rates of homelessness and child apprehension by child welfare services. All of these factors affect how Indigenous women and gender-diverse people experience GBV/IPV and interact with existing programs and must be given special consideration in the development of policy solutions.
- Increase investments in For Indigenous, By Indigenous housing: Given that Indigenous women and gender-diverse people are at a greater risk of experiencing GBV/IPV and homelessness and experience greater barriers to accessing affordable housing, more For Indigenous, By Indigenous housing is needed that is affordable and culturally adequate. The federal government has allocated $4.3 billion over seven years to an Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous housing strategy. More funds need to be invested in the strategy to truly meet the depth of housing need. It is estimated that $4.3 billion to $5.6 billion is needed per year over a period of 10 years to adequately meet the current Indigenous housing need after a long history of inadequate and inappropriate funding.