The Ontario government is winding down consultations on the update of its Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy. The province’s first five-year Strategy comes to an end in 2015 and will be updated later this year.
ISAC has made a submission that addresses aspects of the income side of the housing affordability equation. While building and maintaining low-cost housing is an essential aspect of ensuring housing affordability, it’s also critically important to make sure Ontarians have enough income to be able to afford the cost of housing.
Our submission addresses:
- the very low incomes that people on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program continue to struggle with, which virtually assures that they are unable to afford a suitable, adequate home
- improving access to ODSP, which is critically important for many people with disabilities, like those with mental illness, to be able to leave homelessness and get into a home
- some lingering concerns about the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI), which replaced the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit in 2013.
You can download and read our submission here.
If you want to contribute to the consultations, you can have your say in two ways:
- respond to questions in the Consultation Guide, or
- use the online webform to send your comments directly.
The consultation period ends on Friday, July 3.
More information about the Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy and the province’s consultations is available here.