Yes. Thank you, MP Collins.
It is actually dire.
As I mentioned, our organization is focused on the approximately seven million people who live south and southwest of Toronto in that area from Mississauga all the way down to Chatham. Across that region, a windowless basement apartment is $1,500. Folks currently living with disabilities have a housing allowance of $522. We have a gap of approximately $1,000 to hit the bottom, the cheapest of the market units available. This is having an impact on people's health, mental health and substance use. In addition to the human impact, the lack of adequate income that folks with disabilities are living with means that they can't purchase what they need from the market.
We're also seeing, as a housing developer and health care provider, that it's limiting the options of the private sector. When I started in this role 20 years ago, our folks were able to find housing at the bottom end of the market in the for-profit sector. There's now a $1,000 gap to hit the bottom of that.
The implications are homelessness and poor health, as has been mentioned today. In some cases, it's leading to death.