Toronto to increase rent bank funding by $2.6M to keep residents housed, mayor says
CBC
Toronto will provide an additional $2.6 million in funding for its rent bank this year to help residents stay housed in the city, Mayor Olivia Chow says.
The rent bank is a program that provides grants to help people make rent, cover arrears or secure a new home, Chow told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
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.
"Affordability isn't about keeping costs down, it's about keeping people in their homes," Chow said.
"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," she added.
Dr. Andrew Boozary, a primary care physician and executive director of the University Health Network (UHN) Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, also spoke at the news conference, saying "housing is good health care" and stable housing is preventative medicine.
Eviction is a pipeline to the "cruelties and real health hazards" of homelessness, Boozary said.
"At University Health Network, we see it everyday, patients in the emergency department as the last thread of the social safety net and in our wards — conditions that are really exacerbated and made worse by being subjected to homelessness or the risk of eviction," he said.
"We see this with asthma exacerbations 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-based homelessness and eviction prevention program.
Supported by donors, the $1 million eviction prevention program provides one-time rental assistance for low-income UHN patients facing eviction risk. The program was launched in December.
Boozary said the UHN has already seen progress with its eviction prevention program, particularly with elderly people.
"We're seeing people in their 80s and early 90s that are not getting access to housing or are facing eviction at that age and that stage of their life with lots of vulnerabilities."
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