[homeles_ot-l] Hefty housing costs stay local in "good news / bad news" provincial funding deal FW: WI backgrounder

[Lynne Browne]

FYI… all social assistance benefits and court security costs to be uploaded
to the province by 2018, but unfortunately, no help with social housing!  

(“we felt strongly that a greater commitment from the federal government was
essential because these are areas of national significance.” - see pg 14 in
PROVINCIAL-MUNICIPAL FISCAL AND SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW

 

PROVINCIAL-MUNICIPAL FISCAL AND SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW at HYPERLINK
"http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=6050"http://www.mah.gov.on.c
a/AssetFactory.aspx?did=6050 

News release HYPERLINK
"http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page6024.aspx"http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page6024.as
px 

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)
147 Besserer Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7 
HYPERLINK "mailto:lbrowne at ysb.on.ca"lbrowne at ysb.on.ca,  613-241-7913 ext 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca  

   _____  

From: hhno-on-owner at povnet.org [mailto:hhno-on-owner at povnet.org] On Behalf
Of Michael Shapcott
Sent: October 31, 2008 4:08 PM



Good news: The Ontario government, along with the Association of
Municipalities of Ontario and the City of Toronto, jointly announced earlier
today HYPERLINK "http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page181.aspx"a plan to upload the
costs of several provincial income assistance programs back to the
provincial level over the next decade. This will give municipalities some
significant fiscal breathing room – as it takes the cost of this
income-distributive program off the municipal tax base and returns it to the
provincial tax base, where it belongs. The timing is good as the demand for
income assistance programs may well increase with the current economic
crisis.

Bad news: The cost of the provincial social housing program – which was
downloaded to municipalities under the former Harris government starting in
1998 – remains at the local level. Municipal taxpayers are responsible not
only for the ongoing operating costs of much of the province’s affordable
housing, but they are also liable for a long-term capital repair bill that
has been estimated at $1 billion-plus. 

In the 2007 provincial budget, the Ontario government started to upload
social housing costs by taking the costs from the “905” municipalities back
to the provincial level. Housing costs for the City of Toronto and the rest
of Ontario remain with local taxpayers back to the provincial level. Housing
costs for the City of Toronto and the rest of Ontario remain with local
taxpayers. Those costs are significant. In Toronto, for instance, the total
amount for affordable housing in the city in 2008 was $537 million, with
local taxpayers picking up $192 million. The rest of the costs were covered
by rents from the residents and transfers from the federal government.

A significant portion of social housing downloaded by the province to
municipalities was originally administered by the federal government, which
started its own download in the 1996 federal budget. Unlike the province,
however, the feds decided to pass along a significant portion of the costs
of the housing that they downloaded to the province. In 2008, the federal
government passed along $508 million to Ontario for downloaded social
housing, plus another $85 million under the federal-provincial affordable
housing program. The Ontario government passes along a significant portion
of these funds to municipalities, but expects local taxpayers and
lower-income tenants to pay most of the costs of the downloaded provincial
housing programs.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government created a one-time-only $100
million social housing repair fund, and set up a $500 million loan fund, to
help deal with the aging and deteriorating provincial housing stock (mainly
the former Ontario Housing Corporation public housing). However, some
estimates put the actual repair bill at $1billion-plus.

 

-          Michael

 

 

* * *

 

Michael Shapcott, Director of Community Engagement

The Wellesley Institute, 45 Charles Street East - #101

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4Y 1S2

Telephone - 416-972-1010, x231

Mobile - 416-605-8316

Facsimile - 416-921-7228

HYPERLINK "http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com"www.wellesleyinstitute.com

 


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