[homeles_ot-l] Where's Home 2010

[Lynne Browne]

FYI . . . with thanks to Harvey Cooper and apologies for duplicate postings
of this important report.

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

147 Besserer St., 2nd Floor, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7

Office 613-241-7913, ext. 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca <http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/> 

 

A note from Harvey Cooper: 

 

It has been a dozen years since the first edition of the Where's Home?
report was published jointly by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association
(ONPHA) and the Ontario Region of the Co-operative Housing Federation of
Canada.

 

This morning we are releasing this year's Report, Where's Home 2010. Please
find it attached as well as an Ontario-wide media release. Please  notice
that  in the media release we have referenced the Housing Network of Ontario
and the 5 tests against which the provincial Housing Strategy should be
measured against. 

 

The annual study this year, as we have done in all previous years,  looks at
critical housing variables across Ontario including production trends,
rental housing availability, vacancy rates, rental demand, affordability and
also provides an overview of  22 municipal housing markets throughout the
province.

 

The findings for our 2010 edition struck us as not significantly different
from when we began this yearly exercise in the late 1990's. Unfortunately,
for all too many low and modest income Ontarians, looking for a place to
call home that they can afford; it is not a pretty picture. 

 

Some of the general key findings in this year's report seem to confirm
observations of housing trends in Ontario such as:

 

*    While vacancy rates are stabilizing, after tightening up the last four
years, rents are still rising faster than incomes of renter households.

*    Average rents increased three times the rate of inflation across the
province in 2009.

*    Waiting lists for assisted housing are long and they are growing,
swelling to about 142,000 households throughout Ontario. 

*    One-in-five Ontario renter households are still spending more than half
their income on housing. 

*    There is a growing gap in the incomes of tenants and homeowners.

*    Demand for affordable units is conservatively estimated at 10,000 homes
a year for the next decade. 

*    Over the last ten years in Ontario, factoring in demolitions and
conversions, less than 900 units/year have been added to the stock. 

*    An astonishing 95% of the housing starts in the last five year period
were in the ownership market, with rental accounting for only 5%. Just 15
years ago, rental construction accounted for over a quarter (27%) of the
market.

 

As Where's Home 2010 goes to press, the Ontario government is on the verge
of releasing its Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy (LTAHS). This plan is
intended to map out a vision for affordable housing in this province and a
blueprint for achieving it over the next decade. 

 

We hope that the impending Strategy will be bold, that it will be
comprehensive, and that it will give all Ontarians a chance to have a decent
place that they can afford to call home. 

 

Feel free to contact me, or Sharad at ONPHA, further regarding anything to
do with Where's Home 2010

 

All the best,

 

Harvey

 

Harvey Cooper

Manager of Government Relations

Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada 

Ontario Region

(w) 1.800.268.2537 ext. 237

(cell) 416.809.5048

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.web.net/lists/private/homeles_ot-l/attachments/20100622/252973a8/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Where's Home 2010 Final.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 2011377 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://list.web.net/lists/private/homeles_ot-l/attachments/20100622/252973a8/attachment-0001.pdf>