Bringing affordable housing home: An action plan for housing stability in Ontario

It’s time to bring affordable housing home.

The lack of affordable, safe and accessible housing impacts everyone, but none more than those living on lower incomes.

Two in five renter households in Ontario are paying unaffordable rents. A 2021 survey showed that food bank visits are on the rise, and 2 in 3 food bank visitors in Ontario have less than $100 left after paying their monthly housing costs. And the devastating impacts of housing instability ripple wide, eroding whole communities and our economy.

How do we act on housing so that Ontarians don’t have to make tough choices between food and rent or find themselves turned away from an at-capacity shelter?

To support governments and the community housing sector address a worsening housing crisis, United Ways across Ontario facilitated a province-wide sector engagement with non-profit housing and service providers to create an action plan: ‘Bringing Affordable Housing Home’ that outlines seven strategic recommendations to grow affordable housing and address the full continuum of housing needs in Ontario. Through practical solutions-focused recommendations, we’ve outlined what the community non-profit housing sector needs to effectively play the role that only it can in solving the affordable and deeply affordable pieces of the Ontario housing puzzle.

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Send a message to your elected officials to request they take immediate action on addressing the affordable housing crisis in Ontario, particularly in partnership with the non-profit housing sector.

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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Ontario has always been one of Canada’s most prosperous provinces, with much to be proud of. But today, an affordable home — so foundational to a stable life — is out of reach for far too many, having a devastating impact on low-income individuals and families and all our communities, straining government supports and services, as well as our economy.

[recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here], we need to find a way to house Ontarians — all Ontarians. That is why I am writing to ask you, as [recipient position will go here], to throw your support behind Bringing Affordable Housing Home: An Action Plan for Housing Stability in Ontario (https://uwgt.org/action-plan).

Proposing seven solutions-focused recommendations for government, and the concrete steps to implement each, the Action Plan has the potential to galvanize the building and protection of affordable and deeply affordable housing, and to make progress on the provincial government’s goal of 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years. Developed by United Ways across the province, in collaboration with partners — Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness, Ontario for All, Ontario Nonprofit Network — and 400 non-profit housing leaders, the Action Plan brings the unique expertise of the community housing sector to the fore on this immense challenge.

With their mission written into their bottom line, non-profit housing and co-operative housing providers are the right partners to lead the charge in solving this aspect of the affordable housing crisis. 

When one quarter of renter households in Ontario is living in core housing need and nearly two in five are paying unaffordable rents. When two in three food bank visitors in Ontario have less than $100 left after paying their housing costs each month. When we are seeing record-level homelessness and overcapacity shelters. When all of this is happening, it’s time for all hands on deck — including new partners, new expertise and new solutions.
	
So please [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here], read Bringing Affordable Housing Home (https://uwgt.org/action-plan). And partner with the non-profit housing sector to meet this challenge of a generation, giving the sector what it needs to be successful. For all of us.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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