2012 Report on Waiting List Statistics for Ontario
Description:
Since 2004, ONPHA has conducted an annual survey of Ontario’s 47 service managers to document the number of households on waiting lists for rent-geared-to-income-assisted housing across the
province.
156,358 households were waiting for affordable, rent-geared-to-income housing in Ontario as of December 31, 2011.
The number of waiting households has increased every year for the past five years. Since the start of the economic downturn in 2007, when the waiting list total was 124,032, the number of waiting households has increased by 32,326 households or 26%.
The rate of growth slowed somewhat in 2011, with the number of households increasing by 2.9 per cent after increases of 7.2 per cent in 2010 and 9.4 per cent in 2009.
Ontario faces a serious affordable housing shortage for all household types, including seniors, families with children and, greatest of all, singles and childless couples under 65.
The number of seniors waiting for housing has grown steadily since 2004, reaching 39,463 households - one-quarter of all waiting households - at the end 2011. The number of family households decreased by 1.5 per cent over the past year, but there are still 56,130 households with children in need.
In 2011, single people and childless couples under age 65 formed the largest demographic for the first time, with 58,995 households on the wait list. Singles under 65 face the highest poverty rates in the province, with fewer options for affordable housing.
18,495 households were housed in affordable, rent-geared-to-income housing in 2011.
The turnover rate in existing rent-geared-to-income housing in the province was about 10 percent in 2011. In some municipalities, households were housed in new affordable developments built with federal-provincial funding, proving that a municipal commitment to affordable housing backed by federal and provincial dollars makes a difference.
Type of Resource:
Report
Publication Date:
2012
Location:
Ontario, Canada