World Habitat Day

“The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.”[1]

·         The first United Nations World Habitat Day Celebration was held 1986 in Nairobi, with the theme “Shelter is My Right”.

·         The Global Observance of this year’s World Habitat Day will take place in Naples, Italy.  Housing Groups in Canada will be joining governments and NGOs in over 22 countries that are holding events to mark World Habitat Day.

The UN Condemns Canada’s Failure to Provide Adequate Housing 

·         In May of 2006, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a report in which it criticized Canada’s failure to meet its obligations with respect to affordable housing.  The Committee expressed concerns that the estimated number of homeless persons in Canada still ranges from 100,000 to 250,000 and that shelter allowances and social assistance rates continue to fall far below average rental costs, and that waiting lists for subsidized housing remain very long.[2]

·         The Committee also noted with “particular concern” that many evictions occur on account of minimal arrears of rent, without due consideration of the State party’s obligations under the Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, to which Canada is a signatory.[3]

The “Don’t Come to Our Cities” Campaign

·         The “Don’t Come to Our Cities” Campaign is based on a real advertisement that Toronto City Council published in newspapers throughout eastern Canada in 1947.  Like the campaign poster, the original advertisement warned potential migrants to Toronto that the City was simply unable (or unwilling) to provide sufficient housing.

·         The current housing crisis in Canada’s cities is caused by failures from all levels of government to do their part to ensure an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for Canadians: The federal government has failed to ensure an adequate supply of rental housing; provincial governments have failed to enact legislation giving adequate protection for tenants; municipal governments have failed to effectively enforce maintenance standards, causing deterioration in the quality of existing housing.

·         Canada is the only G7 country that does not have a national housing strategy!

Our message is that by failing to do their part to ensure adequate affordable housing, Canadian governments, at all levels, are sending the message that they don’t care if tenants can afford to live in our cities.

Download a copy of the poster!

Download a copy of Renters at Risk chart, which reflects the environmental movement's documentation of species at risk. As we see it, as governments continue to 'clear cut' affordable housing through their policies of neglect, tenants become species at risk: at risk of becoming homeless (help!)

Canada’s Rental Housing Crisis in Numbers 

Federally:

·         The highest average monthly rents in Canada for two-bedroom apartments in 2005 were in Toronto ($1,052) Vancouver ($1,004) and Ottawa ($920)[4]

·         In 2001, renters were over four times more likely than home owners to spending more than 50% of their income on shelter.[5]

·         Households in Canada’s large cities are more likely to be spending over 50% of their incomes on shelter than households in rural areas and smaller cities.[6]

·         Between 1984 and 1993, the federal government cut almost $2 billion from housing programs, and in 1993 it cancelled funding for new units.  In 1996, the administration of federal housing programs (except co-ops) was downloaded to the provinces and territories.  In 1998, the National Housing Act was amended to reduce the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) role in affordable housing initiatives.[7]

·         In 2005, only 13,689 privately initiated rental apartment units were completed across Canada.  The City with the highest number of units completed was Montreal at 5,519, followed by Quebec City at 1,651 and Toronto at 887.[8]

In Ontario:

·         32% of all households in Ontario are renters (1,351,365 tenant households out of  4,219,410 total households), according to Statistics Canada 2001 Census data.[9]  Just over half (54%) of all of Ontario’s tenant households live in the Toronto CMA (45%) and the City of Ottawa (9%).[10]

·         36% of Ontario’s tenant households are living at or below the “poverty line”[11]

·         There were 122,426 low-income households across Ontario on the active waiting lists for social housing at the beginning of 2006.[12]

·         Applicants often wait several years before they are placed in housing.  In 2003, 20% of applicants in Toronto had been on the waiting list for less than a year, 38% had been on the list for one to three years, 22% for three to five years, and 19% for five years or more.[13]

·         In the 17-year period between 1989 to 2005, Ontario’s overall average vacancy rate has only risen above 3% in the past three years.[14]  During this period, vacancy rates persistently at or below 3% were experienced by Kitchener-Waterloo (11 years), Barrie (15 years), Hamilton (13 years), Toronto (14 years).[15]

·         The average rent of all the Ontario rental units surveyed annually by CMHC increased by 28% from 1995 to 2005, outpacing the 23% percentage change in Ontario’s CPI.  In Toronto, rents increased 32% over this period.[16]

·         The cost of shelter should not exceed 30% of per-tax household income, yet 42% of Ontario tenant households pay 30% or more of their household income on shelter costs,[17] and 20% of Ontario tenant households pay 50% and over of their household income on shelter costs.[18]  The risk for homelessness increases where rental costs consume more than 50% of pre-tax household income for a tenant household.[19]

·         Between 1994 and 2004, there was a net loss of 16,435 rental units in 21 rental market areas in Ontario, despite the approximately 22,000 new rental housing units completed in these same markets during the same time period.[20]

·         The Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal received a total of 442,879 applications from landlords across Ontario to evict tenant households in the period from June 17, 1998 to December 31, 2005.  84% of these applications were for non-payment of rent.  The number of eviction applications filed by landlords across Ontario increased from 55,331 in 1999 to 64,864 in 2005.[21]

·         In this same time period, the Tribunal issued 220,430 default orders to evict tenants without a hearing.[22]

Issued:  September 15, 2006

Compiled by Marcia Barry, FMTA; Ontario information compiled by Mary Todorow, ACTO.