Municipalities can't solve homelessness without more federal and provincial aid, experts say

Councillors in the Region of Waterloo and City of Guelph are well aware homelessness is a major concern in their communities.

But there's no easy fix and funding the solutions will be very costly.

This week, both councils saw massive reports on the issue. In Waterloo region, the report looked specifically at the issue of chronic homelessness and was a mid-term glimpse at work being undertaken by a community advisory group. 

In Guelph, one report was wide-ranging, looking at housing, mental health and substance use services for people experiencing homelessness in the city. Another report to councillors from the County of Wellington looked at the growing number of people experiencing homelessness in the county and Guelph.

Some of the statistics in the reports:

• In Waterloo region, the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness has increased by 129 per cent since January 2020 and is anticipated to triple the current number by 2028.
• The region's supportive housing program currently helps 570 individuals and is "consistently" at max capacity. "The program needs to double in size to meet current needs," the report said.
• The Guelph report noted interviews conducted with people showed there's a "vast increase in people experiencing homelessness locally" and with that, there are challenges accessing things like washrooms, showers, and with just one adult-focused shelter in the city, there's limited access to safe spaces to sleep.
• The report from County of Wellington noted the number of people requiring emergency shelters on a nightly basis rose from 52 in 2018 to 79 in 2022 and between January to June of this year, rose again to 105 people.

Region of Waterloo Coun. Doug Craig, who represents Cambridge, said the report he saw clearly laid out the massive issues the region is facing.

"There's almost this hopelessness that runs through the report because of the overwhelming needs of the community," Craig said during Tuesday's committee meeting.

"This regional council can't solve it."

How municipalities fund housing programs

Since the 1990s, the responsibility for social housing and homelessness has been moved from the federal level to the provincial, ultimately being downloaded by the Ontario government to municipalities with the passage of the Social Housing Reform Act in December 2000.

But as the need for housing and social supports grow, municipalities lack the tools to properly fund the programs without asking taxpayers to foot the bill.

Municipalities in Ontario are not permitted to run deficits and the vast majority of their budgets come from property taxes. It means that if not enough money is coming from the federal and provincial governments, municipalities either have to raise property taxes or cut programs.

The County of Wellington report indicated more money will be needed in 2024 to address the growing demand for services. Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, that the amount is "almost equivalent to a two per cent increase in property taxes."

Back in January, Guthrie had also proposed — then less than a week later axed — the idea of a tax levy to pay for services to help people experiencing homelessness in the city.

"As we continue to advocate for the full allotment from the province, we should also look to step up a little bit to start helping even though we fully recognize that it isn't our jurisdiction," Guthrie said at the time in proposing the idea.

Why not raise property taxes?

While well intentioned, raising property taxes or introducing a levy may actually end up financially hurting the people most at risk of becoming homeless, says Carolyn Whitzman, a housing policy researcher and the expert advisor for the housing assessment resource tools project, which is based at University of British Columbia.

She says people living on lower incomes often pay more in property taxes.

"Sometimes homeowners say, 'Oh, we're ratepayers' but the fact is that if you live in multifamily housing, if you live in an apartment building, you're probably paying higher property tax rates and they're a little bit more invisible because they're in the rent as opposed to a bill that you get as a homeowner," Whitzman told CBC News.

"You're paying a higher rate, so there's a question about whether efforts to make poor people's lives less unsafe and horrible, which is what homelessness is, should be paid for from a regressive tax like the property tax or whether it should be paid for through income taxes, which are progressive and come from mainly the federal government and also the provincial government."

'Municipalities are doing so much'

The report to Region of Waterloo councillors showed that of the region's budget to address homelessness and supportive housing:

• 47 per cent of it comes from the municipality tax levy.
• 42 per cent comes from the province.
• 11 per cent comes from the federal government.

Municipalities across the province have stepped up funding homelessness and social housing projects to meet local needs, says Laura Pin, an assistant professor in political science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and who researches how social inequality intersects with policy-governance.

"I think municipalities are doing so much," she told CBC News. "The provincial level, it's also been increasing but at a lower rate."

Part of the problem at a provincial level is that there is no homelessness strategy for Ontario, she says.

Another issue is the way the province has funded programs, Pin said, pointing to a 2021 auditor general report value-for-money audit looking at homelessness.

The report says the Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing allocated funding through its largest program, the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative. The funding was not based on population need, "but rather follows historical funding levels and is also based on outdated Statistics Canada data."

"This has created unfairness in amounts provided to the 47 municipalities across the province," the report said. 

It noted there were five municipalities that scored high on established criteria to be eligible for one homelessness program, but they did not receive any funding and there was "no justification" for that.

The five municipalities that did not receive funding included Wellington County, which oversees the programs in Guelph.

Alexandru Cioban, a spokesperson for Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra, said in an email to CBC News that the Progressive Conservatives have "made historic investments in homelessness prevention." The government has updated its funding model following the auditor general's report and under the new model, "all municipalities will see their funding maintained or increased."

Cioban noted the Region of Waterloo is receiving 25 per cent more this year over last year for homelessness. Cioban also said "the federal government is underfunding Ontario by about $480 million overall" and those dollars are "urgently needed."

Federal leadership needed

Municipalities need someone to lead the way and that needs to be the federal government, Whitzman says.

"The federal government has not been providing adequate leadership or targets or even information," she said.

Whitzman says the individual federal announcements this past week — $74 million to build homes in London, removing the GST from construction of new rental apartments — is good, but it doesn't go nearly far enough, she says. 

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The federal Liberals launched the national housing strategy in 2017. The 10-year program pledged more than $82 billion to build homes. The government's website tracking the strategy's progress says as of June 30, 113,467 housing units have been "created or committed" and the government has provided $36.82 billion for projects.

"I really think that after almost six years now of a failed national housing strategy that it's really important to sit down and … assess and come out with a clear vision of how things are going to become better," Whitzman said.

Trudeau announces removal of GST on new rental housing builds

1 year ago

Duration 1:41

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that given the current challenges Canadians are facing in housing, 'it's the right time to step up' and remove the GST from the construction of new rental apartments.

Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis, though, says the housing strategy is just hitting its stride.

"A lot of those projects are starting to come online now," he said in an interview.

He noted the federal rapid housing program had three rounds of funding and the Region of Waterloo received funding in all three rounds. The funding was used to build units with the KW Urban Native Wigwam in Cambridge and OneRoof Youth Services in Kitchener.

But Louis says he also recognizes projects receiving approvals today won't be built by tomorrow, winter is coming and people are on the streets now, so they need to act.

"[It's] very much on the radar," he said Friday, ahead of MPs returning to Ottawa on Monday. "It's not one simple solution but at the federal level, what we need to do is help fund the people on the ground who know where the resources go."

'Treat this as the crisis that it is'

When it comes to how municipalities move forward and make progress, Pin says local councillors need to remember "it's important to treat this as the crisis that it is because it affects everybody."

"I think there are some hard choices," Pin said of how councillors will deal with municipal budgets — and potential property tax hikes — in 2024 and beyond.

"There is a need for more funding and I think the other piece is advocating for the province to do more. The province, which has much bigger coffers and many more options for revenue generation, really should be doing more."

Whitzman said anyone who is concerned about housing and homelessness needs to raise their voice "loud and clear" to the politicians who represent them.

"I guess my big point of light is that everybody is treating housing seriously these days," Whitzman said. 

"It's the number one issue for voters and that's true of any level of government. I think in the last few years there's been so much focus on finger pointing and blame shifting and really the only solution is a co-ordinated response."