Thank you.
My name is Diana Summers, and I am here on behalf of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association, which is also called ONPHA.
ONPHA represents 760 non-profit housing providers in 220 communities across Ontario. ONPHA members operate more than 160,000 non-profit housing units and provide housing for approximately 400,000 people. This includes the elderly, low-income families with children, the working poor, victims of violence and abuse, people living with developmental disabilities or mental illness, and the homeless and hard-to-house.
We know that there is a need to act quickly--even more so now, as the impact of the recession is more broadly and deeply felt than we had anticipated.
In Ontario, one in five tenant households spends more than 50% of their income on rent. This means that there are over 260,000 households in Ontario that routinely choose to either pay the rent or feed the kids.
We also know that waiting lists are long. ONPHA's most recent figures show that nearly 130,000 households in Ontario will be waiting anywhere from 5 to 21 years for an affordable home. These numbers do not take into account the homes that will be lost as a result of jobs being lost in this current recession.
Those who live in poverty experience deprivation and are unable to purchase basic goods and necessities. It means that access to goods that most of us take for granted--access to employment, local commercial services, and affordable recreational opportunities--are out of reach.
Poverty is a multi-dimensional issue that requires action on several fronts. It is essential that we recognize the interactions among housing programs, social assistance programs, income supports, retraining programs, and health care availability. All of these have a role to play in an integrated strategy aimed at reducing poverty.
Non-profit housing plays an important role in keeping Ontario's communities healthy and strong. Non-profit housing, by its very nature, is permanently affordable, and can provide safe, livable, and affordable homes for the long term.
It is this type of community asset that can serve as an important tool to help individuals and families break the cycle of poverty. When people have a place to call home, they can seek and find a job, establish their children at school, and maintain a healthy household.
There are three key ways that housing can assist in poverty reduction. The first is at the individual level. It involves reducing housing costs through either housing allowances or rent-geared-to-income subsidies that reduce the household shelter burden to no more than 30% of income.
The second is by using housing programs as a basis for asset-building. These programs assist modest-income households to move to home ownership and to begin building equity. The move to ownership also frees up community-based affordable housing, and thus reduces waiting lists.
Finally, there is increasing the supply of affordable housing, which, if carefully done, can create healthy mixed-income communities. New construction, regeneration or rehabilitation methods, supported with a regulatory framework, are all tools that can accomplish an increase in supply of affordable units. The revitalization of Regent Park here in Toronto is a good example of how these tools are being put to use.
It is important to recognize that different solutions belong in different communities. ONPHA strongly supports the need for local communities to identify the programs that will work best for them.
Poverty is an issue that requires the shared involvement of the federal and provincial governments as well as local communities.
ONPHA believes the federal government should articulate the housing outcomes it wants to see and then streamline the legislative and regulatory processes so that the province and local communities can develop and implement the programs to achieve those outcomes. As stated before, local communities are in the best position to make local decisions about their housing needs.
The economic stimulus funds provided by the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Canada-Ontario affordable housing program, are certainly welcomed, and housing providers will do their best to meet the timeframes, but they are tight. However, what's really needed is sustained funding to ensure long-term viability of housing.
These funds would ensure that existing housing stock is kept in good repair and that new housing stock can be acquired. Housing providers and those delivering support services need to plan in order to achieve operational and economic efficiencies. Multi-year commitments to stable and predictable funding are required.
The federal government should also keep those funds realized from the expiration of operating agreements earmarked to social housing. In Ontario this would mean keeping $11 billion worth of funding for housing without requiring the federal government to increase its spending.
Certainly there is a need to address poverty in Canada. In ONPHA's view, the solution must be multi-faceted, long term, fully funded, locally implemented, and have measurable achievements.
Equally important is the need to realize that alleviating poverty is a shared responsibility, one in which the federal government can and must play an active role.
Thank you.