Ontario Long-Term Commitment to End Homelessness Needs Provincial Investment, a Federal Partner and a National Housing Strategy

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 29, 2015) - The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) welcomed the release yesterday of the report of the Ontario government's Expert Advisory Panel on Homelessness and the province's initial response of targeting an end to chronic homelessness in 10 years. However, key to the Ontario government's long-term goal of ending all homelessness will be a significant and stable investment of provincial dollars and a fully engaged funding partner at the federal level.

"We need a National Housing Strategy that will holistically address the multiple causes and the continuum of homelessness," said Kenn Hale, ACTO's Director of Legal Services. "We believe such a strategy should be rooted in the notion of housing as a human right."

The expert panel's final recommendation in its report was that the province should work with key partners and the federal government to establish a National Housing Strategy. The panel also recognized that a comprehensive approach to ending homelessness requires prevention. This means we must address the fundamental causes of homelessness such as the shortage of affordable housing, shelter allowances far below average rents for those in receipt of social assistance, inadequate minimum wage levels and precarious work, and annual rent increases in excess of increases in tenants' income.

ACTO looks forward to supporting the Ontario government in its work to end homelessness along with the newly elected federal government that has publicly signaled it wants to get back into playing a major role in housing in Canada.