Human Resources committee  Well, the clientele we deal with are living in poverty, and those folks don't usually get loans to buy a house. I've been following this just personally, this whole idea of people being in debt, and I know that a lot of it in Toronto is driven by the high housing prices and peop

Human Resources committee  We're not opposed to housing first. We're saying that it is serving just a portion of the need out there. A lot of people who are not on the street or not in shelters also need housing. There are people who are paying far too much of their income on their rent. There's a gap ther

Human Resources committee  I would say that here in Ontario, our 47 municipal service managers have put together 10-year housing and homelessness plans. They've done extensive studies, research, and community consultations in terms of what the needs are in our community and how we need to address them over

Human Resources committee  We consider that a huge homelessness prevention initiative, because what we could potentially have is hundreds of thousands of households not being able to afford their rent. I know that the federal government has done an interim funding arrangement. They intend to find a long-te

Human Resources committee  Shelters are just an interim measure. We think the housing first is really the way to go with folks in the housing shelters. Most people actually don't remain in the shelter. It's the chronic residents there you want to target with the housing first program. What you need, defin

Human Resources committee  We don't have a lot of expertise with shelters. Our advocacy is more on the permanent side.

Human Resources committee  Social housing providers, like all residential landlords, are required under the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act to keep their portfolio in a state of good repair and fit for habitation. The replacement cost of the existing social housing portfolio in Ontario is estimated to be

Human Resources committee  We know from our experience that low-income tenants are disadvantaged in the housing market because of inadequacies in the provincial laws that regulate their relations with their landlords. The federal government should encourage strong provincial tenant protection policies. The

Human Resources committee  Thank you for inviting me and my colleague Magda Barrera to be part of this important discussion. The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, or ACTO, is a community legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario. We provide legal advice and representation to low-income Ontarians. We al