The city calls benefit rates ‘clearly unrealistic and inadequate,’ as a recent staff report points to an ever-widening ‘affordability gap.’
Jennifer Jewell ate just one piece of food per day, for years, to afford her one-bedroom apartment.
She found herself facing Toronto’s rental market, where the average market cost for a one-bedroom unit increased by 47.7 per cent in the last decade, while shelter allowances for benefit recipients barely budged. It’s a concern that’s been rippling up through city hall, with Toronto’s 10-year housing strategy calling on the province in 2019 to increase social assistance rates to reflect the high costs of housing — labelling the existing benefits “clearly unrealistic and inadequate.” And a recent staff report noted that the “affordability gap” has only continued to widen as rent prices have risen.
Meanwhile, 58 per cent of the city’s homeless population relies on one of these two programs, according to a street needs assessment last spring. Of individuals surveyed in shelters and living outside, 30 per cent relied on OW and 28 per cent relied on ODSP.
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