Photo credit: CBC
Toronto will provide an additional $2.6 million in funding its rent bank this year to help residents stay housed in the city, Mayor Olivia Chow says.
CBC reports that the rent bank is a program that provides grants to help people make rent, cover arresrs or secure a new home, according to the mayor.
The city’s added funding is expected to help 600 more households. That estimate will bring the total number of households expected to benefit from the program to more than 3,000 in 2026.
The city’s total budget for the program this year is $10.8 million.
Chow said, “Affordability isn’t about keeping costs down, it’s about keeping people in their homes.
“When we invest in keeping people housed, we’re making Toronto more affordable for everyone and we’re preventing the far greater cost of homelessness. We’re making sure that one bad month or one medical emergency or layoff doesn’t destroy the entire family.”
Dr Andrew Boozary, a primary care physician and executive director of the University Health Network (UHN) Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine saic, “housing is good for healthcare” and stable housing is preventative medicine.
Boozary said, “At University Health Nerwork, we see it everyday, patients in the emergency department as the last thread of the social safety net in our wards – conditions that are really exacerbsted and made worse by being subjected to homelessness or the risk of eviction.
“We see this with asthma exacerbation and either cold or overcrowded, overheated apartments and worsening diabetes outcomes when people are forced with the impossible decision between food, rent or medication … This health connection is incredibly real and it’s something that thousands of people are facing the risk of every single night.”
The mayor’s announcement comes after UHN launched what it calls Canada’s first hospital-bssed homelessness and eviction prevention program.
However, Stacey Semple, spokesperson for the downtown Toronto chapter of the low income advocacy group ACORN Canada, said the increase in rent bank funding is a “wonderful news” for tenants but it will not solve the problem of affordable housing in Toronto.
