Expiring rental subsidies leaves city scrambling to find affordable solution for tenants

Over the next three years, 551 households in Windsor-Essex will need to find another way to pay rent as some government-funded subsidy programs are set to expire — the earliest ending in March. 

The expiry of the Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance programs has the city scrambling to find alternatives for residents, according to a City of Windsor report that is headed to the Community Services and Parks standing committee Wednesday.

The report notes that the ending of these programs could increase affordable housing demand, evictions and homelessness in a region where the affordable housing wait list has more than 5,000 people. It's also coming at a time when many have lost work due to the pandemic and the provincial government has lifted a rent freeze that was in place since COVID-19 began. 

"We already have a homelessness issue right across the country. We know that there aren't enough affordable places in the country for people to live," said Joyce Zuk, executive director of Family Services Windsor-Essex. 

"The expiration of the rent supplement is an extra layer on top of that that is just going to exacerbate an already significant problem." 

She said rent supplements often provide someone with a portion of their rent, typically between $400 and $500 each month. 

By the end of March, the Investment in Affordable Housing funding will expire for 82 households. 

The Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative will also expire in March for six households, but it is being renewed on a year-to-year funding approach for 2022-2023. 

Both of these programs serve people who are experiencing homelessness, are in crisis, have disabilities, are seniors or survivors of domestic abuse. 

The Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative program has $2.2 million allocated to the city in 2022-2023. But the city said this yearly funding approach makes it "challenging" to deliver subsidy programs, as there's no guarantee funding in upcoming years will be enough and it will mean that residents can't count on funding for longer than a year. 

The city said it is currently trying to help people apply for other subsidy programs, such as the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit, the Windsor-Essex Housing Benefit or Rent-Geared-to-Income units. 

But these benefits may have different eligibility criteria and might offer a supplement that varies from what someone was previously receiving, the city said. 

Family Services Windsor-Essex is one of multiple service providers working to shuffle people into other programs this month. 

"Hopefully the worst case [scenario] means that they have to move, which is something that we never want to see. It's taking stability away from people," Zuk said. 

On top of this concern, Zuk said the task of moving people takes up the time of staff who could be getting people into housing, meaning it could lengthen the amount of time someone is in a shelter. 

'Set us back'

In 2020, the city created a Windsor-Essex Housing Benefit (WEHB) program and agreed to commit $250,000 for three years. Last year, the city said it paused this program so that it could use the money to help transition the households whose rent supplements expire in March. 

Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin, who is a member of the community services committee, said the report is concerning. 

"This is a huge blow and it would set us back quite a bit," he said. 

Even though staff are working to shuffle people over to other programs, he said that may mean people from those programs will be bumped so either way it will place additional strain on the system. 

But Zuk said they are trying their best to make sure everyone who needs accommodation gets it. She added that at this point, she's still "hopeful" upper levels of government will step up to fill the gaps. 

"Now is not the right time, especially during a global pandemic, when we are telling people to reduce their social contacts to remain in their homes, this is not the time for the province and the feds to be dropping the ball on rent subs and housing allowances," she said. 

Why are these programs expiring? 

According to the city, these programs are funded by all three levels of government. 

It's not exactly clear why funding for these programs has not been renewed. Bortolin said it appears as though these were "quasi-permanent" programs, but Zuk said this wasn't necessarily "unexpected."

Funding approaches for these programs have changed over the years and that has made it difficult for delivery, Zuk said. 

Other programs of concern 

Some other programs expired in 2019, but allocated funding in some cases is still being spent. These include: 

• Strong Communities Rent Supplement (SCRSP) funding allocations can be spent until March 31, 2023. 
• Investment in Affordable Housing, which expired in 2019, allocations can be spent until March 31, 2024. 
• Social Infrastructure Funding, which expired in 2019, allocations can be spent until March 31, 2024. 
• Anti-Human Trafficking, which expired in 2019, allocations can be spent until March 31, 2024.

Total annual funding for these comes out to around $3.35 million. 

Bortolin said the city needs to have a "serious" conversation about possibly stepping up to cover funding for these programs. 

"Would we prefer to have 80 more families on the street homeless or should we be looking at the municipality taking the reins of this program?" he said. "I myself am leery of that, but to me, this is emergency status."