Social Housing Funding Gap
Peel Plans For Shortfalls

NRU
April 11, 2018
Mark Kay

Peel Region and some affordable housing advocates are as much wary as they are hopeful of the latest federal/provincial funding agreement.

April 9, all provinces except Quebec agreed to share the costs of the federal government’s $40-billion 10-year national housing strategy, which it announced last November. Collectively the provinces have pledged to meet roughly $7.7-billion of the government’s $8.6-billion target. Ontario has pledged $200-million over three years to meet its share of the total.

With its own estimates of a $330-million funding gap to maintain its subsidized housing in a state-of-good repair over the next 10 years, Peel Region is skeptical.

“It is unclear how much money Peel Region will receive from the federal/provincial agreement. It is unlikely that funding will be sufficient to address all of the region’s needs,” said Peel Region CAO David Szwarc. He added that the region’s expenses stem from the age of its housing stock, along with the responsibility and costs of subsidized housing having devolved to municipalities from the province in 2001.

Ontario generally uses a system of application based funding for its municipalities, which Szwarc says the region views as a disruptive and time consuming obstacle to full and timely aid.

While acknowledging the fundamental need for provincial funding to both meet repair costs and construct more subsidized housing, the region is already developing plans to compensate for deficiencies its views as likely. It is exploring home sharing, requiring space in existing or planned developments to be set aside for use as subsidized housing, with the idea of moving past providing all such units in a single tower or middle range block. There are also plans to use region-owned land for affordable housing development in an effort to reduce overall costs.

“We need to look at things differently than we have in the past,” said Ontario Non Profit Housing Association deputy executive director Margie Carlson. She adds that Peel is one of the more creative regions in terms of coming up with subsidized housing strategies.

Carlson is concerned that excitement over the sizable numbers in the agreement may distract from problems with its areas of focus, such as a portable housing benefit for renters.

“People misjudge the amounts needed, and it isn’t the only solution. There is a portable housing benefit in London [England] and they still have housing problems,” she said.

The Province of Ontario has not yet signed a one-on-one agreement with the federal government for the distribution of funds, so final numbers for potential funding to municipalities remain unknown.