Anglicans continue to advocate for shelter, housing

Advocating for the creation and preservation of affordable housing has long been a priority for the Diocese of Toronto, even before the hiring of Murray MacAdam as the diocese’s first Social Justice and Advocacy consultant in 2004. While many different sectors of society, including government, private business, non-profit and charities, all have a part to play in creating housing in Canada, the policies set by federal, provincial and municipal governments play a crucial role in establishing the conditions under which housing is developed, maintained and kept affordable – or the opposite. These conditions include rent controls, zoning regulations and other by-laws, financial incentives for housing creators, benefits aimed at homebuyers and renters, and the regulation and taxation of individuals and corporations investing in housing.

After many years of advocacy, we were pleased to see the launch of a national housing strategy in 2017, enshrined in the National Housing Strategy Act of 2019. The act recognizes the importance of housing to the social, economic, health and environmental wellbeing of Canadians, and affirms Canada’s commitment to housing as a human right. At the same time, however, the act follows three decades of lack of public investment in housing, especially in “social” or subsidized housing geared to those living on low and moderate incomes. During that time, the rise of short-term rentals and investment vehicles created to maximize profits from residential housing put additional pressures on the housing market. Meanwhile, public policies that exacerbate housing unaffordability persist at all levels of government.

In fall of 2023, the diocese’s Social Justice and Advocacy Committee presented a motion in support of the human right to housing for parishes to consider at their 2024 vestry meetings. The motion called on the federal government to target subsidies and incentives to projects that met clear conditions on affordability and eviction prevention, as well as to end the favourable tax treatment of real estate investment trusts. It called on the provincial government to extend rent controls and vacancy controls on all rental housing, to restrict above-guideline rent increases, and it urged the province to work with municipalities to enact and enforce restrictions on short-term rentals.

Despite the complexity of this vestry motion, it was widely supported across the diocese. Of the individual calls, the one that attracted the most support was that of closing provincial rent control loopholes, including the exemption on units first occupied as rental housing after 2018, vacancy decontrol, and the lack of restriction on above-guideline rent increases. Seventy per cent of the parishes in the diocese supported the need to close these loopholes.

The strong response to the vestry motion led to further housing advocacy, both by the diocese as a whole and by individual parishes. Several parishes wrote to their local MPPs, outlining their support for stronger rent controls and limitations on short-term rentals. As the Social Justice and Advocacy consultant, I raised these issues in an interfaith conversation between faith group representatives and staff of (then) provincial Housing Minister Paul Calandra, as well as in our response to the 2024 provincial budget. Our diocese joined the non-partisan Fair Rent Ontario campaign (https://fairrentontario.ca/) last fall and was featured as a public endorser of the campaign on its social media on Christmas Eve. We raised housing issues in both of our provincial and federal election resources earlier this year and sent a letter to the Prime Minister and new federal housing minister that outlined our support for greater investment in public and non-profit housing.

Despite sustained advocacy, efforts to shift housing policies have met with limited success. Combined supports from federal and provincial governments have helped create new affordable and supportive housing, and the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit helps tens of thousands of households across the province maintain a roof over their heads. But Ontario tenants continue to face lack of rent controls in newer units, as well as vacancy decontrol and back-to-back rent increases. Housing starts are well below the province’s own targets, and few of the new units are affordable to low or moderate-income residents.

With static social assistance rates and wages failing to keep pace with rising rents, it is hardly surprising that homelessness has skyrocketed in recent years. A report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in January found that homelessness in Ontario had risen 25 per cent from 2022 to 2024 and will get much worse without significant intervention. It is thus discouraging to see the rise of a punitive approach to homelessness, from Barrie City Council’s attempt to criminalize outreach to unhoused people in 2023, to neighbourhood backlash against shelters and supportive housing in Toronto, to the province’s Bill 6, which imposes heavy fines or jail time on people forced to seek shelter out of doors.

Still, Anglicans across the diocese continue to advocate for shelter and housing: speaking out at town halls, sending letters to local council meetings, and contributing funds and volunteer hours to local land trusts that help preserve and maintain affordable housing in their neighbourhoods. Some have created programs to welcome new shelter and supportive housing residents in their communities. Others such as St. George, Grafton (see related article) have partnered with local organizations to support the building of new affordable housing.

Responding to the housing crisis is not a quick fix. It will take every sector of society to contribute to creating communities where no one goes without the dignity and security of a home. But in advocacy efforts from federal to local, in supporting initiatives and organizations that create housing, and in fostering a public conversation supportive of housing for all, each of us can play a part.