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National
Housing and Homelessness Network
For immediate release
February 23, 2004
NHHN
Housing Report Card, 2004
Key messages from NHHN
Federal Throne Speech 2004: Nothing New for Housing
Allocations
under Affordable Housing Program
Adding up Ontario Liberal housing promises
On eve of Toronto Mayor’s housing summit:
New report card from NHHN shows that the
Feds, Province & City have only delivered
tiny fraction of new homes they promised
As Toronto Mayor
David Miller prepares to host the first federal-provincial-municipal
housing summit in Toronto in five years, a new report card from the
National Housing and Homelessness Network shows that all three levels
of government have failed to deliver on housing promises that they
have made. Former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman hosted the last Toronto
housing summit in March of 1999.
The NHHN report
card shows that:
- The Toronto
Mayor’s Homelessness Action Task Force (the Golden report)
recommended in January of 1999 that the city needed 3,000 new
homes annually, or 15,000 homes over the past five years. The
city has actually delivered only 1,054 new homes.
- The federal
Affordable Housing Program, announced in 2001 and topped up in
2003, promised $1 billion over five years to build about 31,500
new homes. The federal government has actually committed only
$88.48 million, or about 3,550 homes, since then and none of them
are in Toronto.
- The Ontario
component of the federal Affordable Housing Program, announced
in 2002, promised $489.4 million over five years ($244.7 million
each from the federal and provincial governments) for about 9,800
new homes. The total committed has been $4.8 million ($2.4 million
from federal and provincial governments), or about 96 new homes,
since then and none of them are in Toronto.
The National
Housing and Homelessness Network is calling on the federal government
to adopt the One Percent Solution - $2 billion annually for new affordable
housing – with a matching amount from provincial and territorial
governments.
For
information: Michael Shapcott, Co-Chair, National Housing and Homelessness
Network
Telephone – 416-978-1260 / Cell – 416-605-8316 Email: michael.shapcott@utoronto.ca
National
Housing and Homelessness Network
Housing Report Card, February 2004:
46,500
new homes promised,only about 4,600 delivered
On the eve of
Toronto Mayor David Miller’s housing summit,
the National Housing and Homelessness Network has released its latest
report card on housing in Canada and Toronto. The report card shows
that while federal, provincial and municipal governments have promised
more than $1.25 billion to build at least 46,5000 homes in the past
five years, the total delivered is less than $100 million – about
4,600 homes. Only about new 1,000 homes are in Toronto.
Promises
Mayor’s Homelessness Action Task Force (Golden report): 2,000
affordable rental units; 1,000 supportive units annually
Total promised for Toronto since 1999: 15,000 units
Actual new
units / new dollars
Let’s Build – 493 units. Transitional (SCPI) – 561
units
Total delivered in Toronto since 1999: 1,054 units 1
Promises
Federal Affordable Housing Program: $680 million in November 2001;
$320 million in February 2003 (estimated 31,500 units) 2
Total promised since 2001: $1 billion
Actual new
units / new dollars
Total committed (national) since 1999: $88.48 million (estimated
3,550 units) 3
Total committed (Toronto) since 1999: Zero (zero units)
Promises
Ontario component – federal/provincial Affordable Housing Program
(May 2002); $244.7 million federal; $244.7 million
provincial (estimated 9,800 units) 4 5
Total promised since 2002: $489.4 million
Actual new units / new dollars
Total committed (Ontario) since 2002: $2.4 million (estimated 96
units)
Total committed (Toronto) since 2002: Zero (zero units)
1
Source: City of Toronto 2003 Report Card on Homelessness (September,
2003).
2 Unit estimate
based on average unit subsidy of $25,000 for 2001 program; $75,000
for 2003 program.
3 Source: Letter
from Minister Steve Mahoney to NHHN, December 5, 2003
4 Note: The Ontario
component is part of the overall federal Affordable Housing Program,
not additional units.
5 Unit estimate based
on average unit subsidy of $25,000 for 2002 program.
Key
Messages from National Housing and Homelessness
Network:
MORE THAN 200 HOMELESS DEATHS:
Toronto, and virtually all of Canada, continues to face a desperate
homelessness disaster and affordable housing crisis. The death of
James Kagoshima, a homeless man and well-known advocate, in Toronto
about one week before Mayor David Miller’s housing summit underlines
the depths of the disaster. Since the last mayor’s housing summit
in March of 1999, there have been about 200 recorded deaths of homeless
people in Toronto, according to the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.
There are more than 70,000 households on the Toronto affordable housing
waiting list.
ONE PERCENT SOLUTION:
The goal of the National Housing and Homelessness Network is the One
Percent Solution ($2 billion for new social housing from federal government
and $2 billion from provinces, territories). Effective political action
by the NHHN and others has led to an emerging patchwork of funding
promises over the past five years. These promises are welcome, but
even if fully implemented, they fall far short of the need. At the
federal level, the funding promises amount to $1 billion over five
years - which is 10% of the $10 billion required.
DEDICATED NATIONAL HOUSING FUNDING:
Paul Martin as Liberal housing critic in 1990 called for major new
spending in social housing: “leadership must come from one source;
and a national vision requires some national direction.” In his
first Throne Speech as Prime Minister in February of 2004, housing
received only vague mention, no new funding promises and was lumped
in with municipal infrastructure (roads, sewers, water, public transit).
In 1996, as finance minister, Paul Martin transferred most federal
housing programs to the provinces and territories. Now, housing is
being downloaded to municipalities. The result will be uneven housing
policies across Canada, varying from municipality to municipality.
Canada needs a national housing program with national standards and
national funding.
BREAK FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL LOGJAM:
Third,
the federal government needs to break the logjam around the $680 million
over five years for new housing promised in November of 2001 (to be
matched by the provinces and territories). Only about $88 million
has actually been spent. Only Nunavut has spent its full allocation.
Quebec, B.C. and Alberta have committed the most among the provinces,
but there are concerns with the roll-out in those provinces. If provinces
or territories are unable or unwilling to meet their commitments,
then the federal government should bypass them and deal with willing
municipalities or social housing providers.
ROLL-OUT ADDITIONAL $320
MILLION:
The entire $320 million for new housing promised in the February 2003
federal budget has been frozen due to the logjam around the $680 million.
This money needs to be put into new housing, as promised, right away.
EMERGENCY NATIONAL HOUSING SUMMIT:
The federal, provincial and territorial governments should immediately
convene an emergency national housing summit to break the logjam around
the spending promises made to date and to move quickly towards the
full $2 billion annually that is required. The next regular summit
may not be held until the fall of 2004.
February, 2004
February 2,
2004
Federal
Throne Speech 2004: Nothing
new for housing
The first Speech
from the Throne from Prime Minister Paul Martin offers nothing new
for the millions of Canadians suffering from the nation-wide housing
crisis and homelessness disaster. Fourteen years after Martin headed
a task force that called for a renewed national housing strategy,
he has yet to deliver. The best that the speech could offer is a vague
promise to meet the housing commitments made by the Chretien government.
In November 2001, the federal government offered $680 million over
five years for new housing. Another $320 million was added in 2003
for a total of $1 billion over five years. But as of November of 2003,
the federal government had only committed $88 million - or less than
9% of the total.
TD Economics issued
a report in June, 2003, that called housing “one of Canada's
most pressing public policy issues” and noted: “After ten
years of economic expansion, one in five Canadian households is still
unable to afford acceptable shelter.”
The Throne Speech
was thin on housing. The word housing appears only twice and the word
homelessness once. In none of these references is there is a commitment
to increase funding or to restore a new national housing strategy.
There is no reference to housing in sections on children, people with
disabilities or Aboriginal people. The first reference to housing
is on page 11, when it appears in a list of qualities that make up
a good community. The Speech mentions the “new deal for cities”
and a promise to waive GST for municipalities. This amounts to, by
the government’s own estimate, $7 billion over 10 years, or $700
million annually for all the thousands of municipal governments. And
this is for a range of expensive municipal needs – everything
from roads and sewers to water and public transit. The most significant
reference to housing comes on page 12: “The Government will also
move to quickly commit funds within our existing infrastructure programs,
so that our partners can plan properly. Together, these are real and
ongoing investments in urban transit, affordable housing, clean water,
and good roads.”
Compare this with
the Chretien Throne Speech in 2002, which said: “[The Government]
will extend its investments in affordable housing for those whose
needs are greatest, particularly in those Canadians cities where the
problem is most acute. It will extend the Supporting Communities Partnership
Initiative to provide communities with the tools to plan and implement
local strategies to help reduce homelessness. In a number of cities,
poverty is disproportionately concentrated among Aboriginal people.
The government will work with interested provinces to expand on existing
pilot programs to meet the needs of Aboriginal people living in cities.”
Throne Speeches
are always vague documents, unlike budgets. But the 2002 Throne Speech
had much stronger language. Martin’s first Throne Speech is a
step backwards. No promise of new spending, no obvious priority to
a national social housing program and only a weak commitment to try
and spend the money that was already promised.
Federal
Affordable Housing Program
Two years after the federal-provincial-territorial Affordable Housing
Framework Agreement was signed, only 13% of the funding has been allocated,
according to new numbers from the federal government. Add in the $320
million promised in the 2003 federal budget (none of which has been
spent) and less than 9% of the total promised has been delivered.
Province
|| Allocation ($m) || Recorded spending ($m) 6
Newfoundland
and Labrador: $15.14 || 0
Prince Edward Island: $2.75 || 0
Nova Scotia: $18.63 || $0.07
New Brunswick: $14.98 || 0
Quebec: $161.65 || $43.72
Ontario: $244.71 || $1.20
Manitoba: $25.39 || $0.48
Saskatchewan: $22.93 || $0.94
Alberta: $67.12 || $8.50
British Columbia: $88.70 || $26.70
Northwest Territories: $7.54 || $1.89
Yukon Territory: $5.50 || 0
Nunavut: $4.96 || $4.96
Total: $680.00 || $88.48
6 Recorded expenditures
to end of October 2003 (revised November 25, 2003). Information from
Secretary of State
Responsible for Selected Crown Corporations, December 5, 2003.
Adding up Ontario
Liberal housing promises:
PROMISE TO RE-BUILD ONTARIO’S PUBLIC SERVICES:
The Ontario Liberals, who were elected to form the government in Ontario
in October of 2003, campaigned on a promise to
re-build Ontario’s public services. The Liberal’s housing
commitments that have a significant financial cost (with quotes from
various policy documents and estimates provided by the Liberal Party)
include:
- “almost
20,000 new housing units for needy families” (cost – $245
million over four years),
- “a housing
allowance for low-income families [to] provide direct, immediate
housing relief for 35,000 families” (cost – $100 million
annually),
- “a provincial
rent bank to help tenants with short-term arrears so that they can
keep their homes” (cost – $10 million annually),
- a “priority
to the development of affordable housing on Ontario government-owned
lands”,
- the creation
of a new “Ontario Mortgage and Housing Partnership to provide
competitive financing rates for non-profit, co-operative and commercial
developers who want to build rental housing in Ontario”, and,
- a “significant
increase [to] supportive housing options for those suffering from
mental illness” (Liberals promised 6,600 units, so cost could
be $100 million over four years).
Total cost of
Liberal housing promises: at least $272 million annually.
The McGuinty Liberals
also made other significant housing promises that don’t have
a significant financial impact. These include commitments to:
- “repeal
the misnamed Tenant Protection Act and replace it with an effective
tenant protection law. Our law will protect tenants by making unfair
rent increases illegal”,
- “encourage
the construction of more rental units to reduce upward pressure
on rents”,
- “ensure
that municipalities with low vacancy rates have the right to protect
existing rental housing from unreasonable demolition or conversion
to condominiums”,
- plus specific
promises to reform or repeal regulations used by the Ontario Rental
Housing Tribunal, which under the Harris / Eves government was a
“fast-track eviction factory”.
To meet this second
set of promises, the government must ensure sufficient funding is
restored to provincial housing programs (currently divided among several
ministries). From 1995 to 2003, the province cut an estimated $879.1
million in housing spending.
Source: Taking action to re-build: Simple, practical, affordable
solutions to Ontario’s manufactured housing crisis and homelessness
disaster; submission to 2004 pre-Budget consultations of Ontario Legislative
Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs,
Monday, February 2, 2004, by Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
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