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.
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.
Across Ontario, a worsening housing crisis is making adequate, affordable housing increasingly out of reach, with more and more households lacking housing that meets basic conditions of affordability, security of tenure, accessibility, and habitability. The scope and scale of this crisis requires nothing short of a fundamental shift towards a human-rights based framework to housing policy. At the heart of this framework is the progressive realization of adequate housing as a human right, rather than a commodity to be bought and sold.
On Monday November 9th, Ontario’s New Democratic Party released a Housing Plan (“the Housing Plan”) titled “Homes You Can Afford” as part of the party’s 2022 election platform. The Housing Plan includes a number of measures aimed at building and preserving affordable housing, cracking down on the financialization of housing, supporting the development of housing for vulnerable individuals and communities, and protecting tenants against unlawful and bad-faith evictions.
Here we run down what the Ontario NDPs’ Housing Plan gets right, what’s missing and CERA’s take.
Encouragingly, the Housing Plan incorporates the language, process and substance of a rights-based approach to housing policy. The Housing Plan begins with an acknowledgment that housing is a human right and that inadequate housing disproportionately impacts women, Black, Indigenous, and racialized people, individuals living with mental health and addictions challenges, and 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. From here, and throughout the Housing Plan, housing and housing policy are seen as key tools to achieving social, economic, health, and environmental goals such as ending homelessness, reversing the financialization of housing, addressing mental health issues through the use of supportive housing, and taking measures that recognize the important linkages between housing and the climate, in particular increasing energy efficiency through environmentally progressive building standards. Many of the Housing Plan’s proposals focus on improving housing outcomes for those in greatest need and in building sustainable and inclusive communities – both of which are priorities in a rights-based approach to housing policy. A commitment to meaningful engagement with and participation from Indigenous and Northern Ontario communities, individuals experiencing homelessness, and survivors of domestic violence sets the tone for tackling the housing needs of these individuals and communities. In short, the Housing Plan contains many of the protocols and measurements necessary for upholding the human right to adequate housing.
In a human rights-based framework, everyone has the right to equitable access to adequate housing. This right implies more than having four walls and a roof, and is not limited to the basic supply and availability of housing. At minimum, adequate housing meets the following basic conditions:
The Housing Plan includes specific policies aimed at ensuring the various elements of the right to housing listed above are met. Highlights include:
Affordability
Security of Tenure
Accessibility
Habitability
Location
Serviced by necessary infrastructure
Cultural adequacy
A key cause of the housing crisis is the financialization of housing which treats housing as a market commodity rather than a social good – a distortion that is responsible for increased homelessness and a lack of adequate housing. When housing is thought of as a commodity, it is no longer recognized for what it is: a fundamental human right. In order to advance the right to housing, active measures must be put in place to ensure financialization no longer continues.
The Housing Plan responds to and addresses the issue of the financialization of housing through several policy proposals targeting housing speculation and hidden ownership. Many of these proposals are inspired by recent policies adopted by the Government of British Columbia, which include:
There are a number of ways that the Housing Plan could be enhanced to further protect the right to adequate housing.
The availability of timely legal advice, information and/or representation is necessary to ensure tenants can offset the existing power imbalance between landlords, many of whom have access to legal professionals, and tenants. The Housing Plan does not include increased funding for Legal Aid Services for tenants who require legal advice, representation and information to defend themselves against eviction and enforce their rights, nor does it provide increased funding for non-profits and housing advocacy groups that play a crucial role in assisting tenants facing eviction, discrimination and impediments to enforcing their rights as tenants who are not able to avail of legal aid services.
Bill 184, the misleadingly named “Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act,” threatens several critical components of the Right to Housing – security of tenure, affordability, and safety. This Bill strips tenants of several procedural rights guaranteed by the Residential Tenancies Act and will result in more evictions into homelessness for tenants across Ontario. The Housing Plan does not mention any specific intention to repeal this Bill and restore the rights to tenants facing eviction.
While the omissions mentioned above represent some important missed opportunities to level the playing field between landlords and tenants, the remainder of the Housing Plan represents a substantive step forward in addressing the significant housing needs of low income and vulnerable Ontarians, which have only been exacerbated as a result of COVID-19. Of particular interest is the commitment to provide 311,000 tenants with financial support to pay their rent, which could be the most significant opportunity to stem the likely wave of COVID-19 evictions that many of the organizations and individuals we work with remain deeply concerned about. Also of interest are the commitments to crack down on unlawful evictions due to landlord’s own use provisions and above guideline increases, two processes which we know to be widely misused and which contribute to the housing crisis in Ontario by facilitating rent escalation beyond a level that is reasonable. We are encouraged by the Housing Plan and hope that the omissions mentioned above may be addressed in future policy development or platform pieces.
September 2020 ushered in significant housing policy developments, with the Government of Canada and City of Toronto both taking a solid step in the right direction, and the Ontario government making some progress while still lagging behind its counterparts.
As we enter the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, these developments – big and small – could not come at a better time.
Here we’ve distilled the most important aspects that you need to know.
Toronto’s HousingTO 2020-2030 Implementation Plan was released on September 15, nine months after the City made an historic commitment to realize the right to housing. It contains the very first details of how the City intends to address affordable housing and homelessness over the next ten years.
The City has set the following ten-year targets:
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. Last week we identified the good and the gaps in their plan.
The good:
The gaps:
We also delivered our ideas of what we are hoping to see in the plan to the City’s Planning and Housing Committee, including establishing an Office of the Housing Commissioner and continued investment in eviction prevention services as a way to ensure the positive gains made by the HousingTO Plan are not erased.
In short, we asked the City to:
What’s next
The Planning and Housing Committee met on September 22 to discuss the implementation plan, and made several recommendations for improvements, in some instances even pushing for more ambitious targets. The Committee’s recommendations will be taken up by Toronto City Council at their meetings on September 30th and October 1st, where we will keep a watchful eye and report on further developments regarding the future of their housing plan.
Tune into Toronto City Council meetings:
On September 17, the Ontario government proposed Bill 204, a piece of legislation to temporarily freeze residential rent increases in 2021 for most rent-controlled and non-rent-controlled units.
Here is what you need to know about your rent in 2021:
Cracks in the ice
While the freeze will certainly provide some relief to Ontarian renters, the legislation fails on two major areas which housing and tenant advocates – including CERA – had called on the government to address:
The Government of Canada made several announcements related to housing and homelessness in their highly-anticipated Speech from the Throne on September 23, effectively moving their National Housing Strategy forward in a crucial moment for the country.
These are the commitments the Government of Canada has made related to housing and homelessness:
While these are all laudable goals, we look forward to seeing key detail and resources to support the implementation of these commitments. Stay tuned for further updates and analysis from CERA as the government releases more detail on their plans.
Nine months after making an historic commitment to realize the right to housing, the City of Toronto has released the very first details of how it intends to implement its 2020-2030 Housing Plan. Concrete action to increase the supply of affordable housing stock is needed now more than ever – in particular for low-income and racialized communities across the city – and the City’s Implementation Plan couldn’t come at a better time. However, while this plan is a good next step to realize its commitment, 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 objectives it has set for itself to realize the right to housing.
To be fair, the fact that the City has managed to prepare a 10-year implementation plan in the midst of a pandemic which is exacerbating the housing crisis and a range of other systemic issues is in itself a commendable feat. It is also proof of the City’s determination to follow through on its commitment to tackle this crisis head-on, and to not let a year go by – even as challenging a year as 2020 has been – without taking this significant next step.
Additionally, the inclusion of specific chapters dedicated to the most marginalized groups and communities is a hopeful sign that the City has not wavered in its resolve to adopt a rights-based approach to housing. This is highly significant, given that the impacts of the housing crisis are disproportionately borne by marginalized and racialized communities, including Black and Indigenous communities. The plan outlines that half of its new affordable units will be supportive housing, which aim to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable residents, including people who are living in homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless.
The most glaring gap in this plan is that, for the most part, the City’s targets fall short of responding to the scale of the crisis. One example of this can be seen in how the plan aims to respond to the needs of Indigenous communities. Research by the Colour of Poverty in 2019 found that 87% of Indigenous people in Toronto qualified as low-income – representing roughly 40,000 people – and presumably most of them are in need of affordable housing. The target in Toronto’s housing plan aims to create around 5,000 new affordable housing units for Indigenous communities. By this measure, Toronto would need to increase its target by roughly 700% to respond to the needs of Indigenous people in the city, and they are just one community in need among many.
Another significant absence is that of a commitment to put a Housing Commissioner’s office in place. This is an essential accountability mechanism to ensure that the City continues to uphold and advance its commitment to realize the right to housing. Not only are their plans for establishing a Commissioner’s office vague, importantly there is also no mention of resources to be dedicated to this area of the plan.
The City’s Planning and Housing Committee met on September 22 to discuss the Implementation Plan, and following this meeting, they will bring their recommendations on the adoption of the plan to the next meeting of the City of Toronto Council on September 29. CERA delivered two deputations to the Planning and Housing Committee outlining our concerns around the necessity of establishing an Office of the Housing Commissioner and continued investment in eviction prevention services as a way to ensure the positive gains made by the HousingTO Plan are not erased. We will continue working with the City as part of the Right to Housing Toronto Network (R2HTO) to ensure that the City fully realizes its commendable commitment to right to housing for all.
This toolkit is designed to assist small-to-medium-sized landlords in implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) and its accessibility standards. It should be read in conjunction with the AODA, its regulations and the accompanying resource guide. The guide is designed to provide you with information about the law and provide you with practical solutions to the accessibility challenges small-to-medium-sized landlords face.
In Ontario, landlords are prohibited from discriminating against rental applicants or tenants on sixteen grounds known as “prohibited grounds “. Some rental ads can be explicitly discriminatory while others discriminate “by accident”. Ontario Human Rights Commission states that “preferential” language choices by landlords are just as problematic as blatantly discriminatory word choices:
“Some landlords, when listing “selling points” to attract tenants, make statements that may discriminate, even if they don’t mean to. This often happens when you are trying to appeal to people you think may like the rental unit… These statements suggest that the landlord prefers some people over others. …These ads discourage good tenants from applying, because they think they won’t be treated fairly.”
Examples of explicit discriminatory language and preferential language:
The Ontario Human Rights Commission advises landlords to keep a few things in mind when write a rental ad.
Landlords are required to:
Landlords’ duties in case of request for accommodation:
Landlords are required to take accommodation requests from tenants with disabilities seriously and respond to them in a timely manner. Landlords are only able to deny an accommodation request if they can prove that meeting the request constitutes “undue hardship.”
A landlord can only claim undue hardship if accommodating a tenant would seriously threaten the financial viability of their business or endanger the health or safety of other tenants.
Both the landlord and the tenant should look into whether any outside sources of funding, such as government grants, are available to help pay for the cost of accommodation.
It is the responsibility of the landlord to prove undue hardship. They should consider:
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