Affordable Housing (Photo provided by the County)
The United Way is laying out a path for how provincial and local governments can tackle the housing crisis.
The new Built for Good: Delivering the Housing Ontario Needs report highlights both the need for affordable housing as well as a 10-year actionable housing plan if all levels of government, the non-profit sector and private partners get on board.
Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Co-ordinator Jill Umbach says, “It is a collective report across Ontario of all the United Ways looking at what would it take to put a dent in reducing the core housing need for people in our community and all across Ontario.”
The report by the United Way Greater Toronto and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada says over 805,000 affordable housing units are needed in Ontario for low-income households by 2035, including 93,000 supporting housing units and 55,000 for Indigenous families.
There is also a need for 145,000 moderately affordable units needed for moderate-income households.
Locally, over 3,000 households have applications in to Bruce and Grey Counties for affordable community housing.
“In 2024, homelessness affected 375 individuals in Grey County and 109 households in Bruce County, with a significant proportion experiencing chronic homelessness. Among them are children, youth, Indigenous community members, and seniors – a stark reminder that homelessness impacts people of all ages and backgrounds across our region,” says Umbach.
To address the housing crisis, she says the report looks at a number of different models, including targets ranging from two to 10 years.
The report also includes dollar amounts of what needs to be spent to reach these targets. This includes a $16.7 billion investment by 2027 to begin a province-wide, non-profit, co-op housing strategy. This would further grow to $62.6 billion by 2030.
She says in two years time, this plan would look at 185,000 units of deeply affordable homes.
“The call to action is around improving assumptions made about housing policies, working with the government around coordination and strategic investment in non-profit and co-op housing. We think that will have a significant impact on reducing homelessness, supportive and permanent housing will also address some of the needs for people that need to stay housed with support, and what we want to do is ensure long-term stability for low to moderate income households,” says Umbach.
The report has gone to both Grey and Bruce County’s housing teams and senior management.
“We are planning to engage in discussions with them and really to lobby back up at the Ontario Government. Currently, the wardens and representatives will be heading off to Ottawa for the next Association of the Municipalities of Ontario and there they will be lobbying for more funding around that affordable housing piece and in particular, we will jointly at the United Way be appealing to the provincial government in the next financial discussions around the Ontario budget. This report has come out with a lot of dollars that will be able to inform the next budget discussion around investments in co-op and non-profit housing,” says Umbach.