EDITOR’S NOTE: This text initially appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media web site devoted solely to overlaying provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Simply over two years in the past, fewer than 14,500 folks on both of Ontario’s primary social help applications had been experiencing homelessness.
That quantity had nearly doubled — to greater than 26,500 — as of a few months in the past, provincial information obtained by The Trillium exhibits.
As cities and cities have pleaded in recent times for assist from the province to cope with rising homelessness, Premier Doug Ford has preached the significance of laborious work.
“It is advisable begin working when you’re wholesome,” Ford stated on Monday, referring to folks residing in encampments. “Backside line, when you’re unhealthy, I am going to deal with you the remainder of my life — your life — we’ll deal with you. However when you’re wholesome, get off your A-S-S and begin working like everybody else does. Quite simple.”
Advocates pointed to the excessive value of housing and inflation, with out a commensurate enhance in social providers charges, as a key cause for the staggering enhance.
It’s particularly tough to seek out housing as a result of as soon as somebody is homeless, they lose their shelter allowance — $390 of the $733 month-to-month quantity for Ontario Works (OW), and $582 of the $1,368 month-to-month whole for the Ontario Incapacity Assist Program (ODSP).
That makes it even tougher to give you first and final months’ lease, stated Diana Chan McNally, a neighborhood and disaster employee in Toronto.
The typical lease for a studio condo in Ontario is $1,837/month, in line with Leases.ca.
“You can’t afford nutritious food. You’re just trying to do your best to stay housed and clean and fed. And you’re lucky to be living in a rooming house, in a shared room at that amount,” stated Trevor Manson, co-chair of the ODSP Motion Coalition. “It’s not a bunch of healthy people sitting at home, playing Nintendo, drinking beer all day.”
In July, the Ministry of Youngsters, Neighborhood and Social Providers recorded that 26,553 ODSP and OW “cases” skilled homelessness. A bigger variety of “beneficiaries” — 31,957 — on ODSP or OW had been homeless, in line with the ministry’s tally.
The doc containing the ministry’s information, retrieved via the freedom-of-information system, explains {that a} “case” refers to a person or a complete household on social help. A “beneficiary” is described as people and their dependents, similar to their partner and youngsters, receiving monetary assist.
The ministry’s counts embrace folks “who are recorded as homeless or living in emergency hostels,” its doc says. The ministry stated it thought of an OW or ODSP recipient as “homeless” in the event that they’re recorded as having no mounted deal with.
OW and ODSP are the 2 primary social help applications via which the provincial authorities gives Ontarians with direct monetary help.
Every is supposed to assist pay for primary wants and shelter. Somebody isn’t allowed to obtain each concurrently; they will solely obtain one by one.
OW is supposed to offer short-term monetary help for folks on the lookout for work. The quantity a recipient receives might be primarily based on their household dimension and the age of their dependents. In July, there have been 276,753 whole recipients of OW, together with people and households receiving the profit, in line with the federal government’s web site.
ODSP is for folks with disabilities who can’t work very a lot, or in any respect. In July, 372,858 people and households obtained ODSP, in line with information posted on-line by the provincial authorities.
Simply over two years in the past, in June 2022, there have been 14,436 instances of ODSP and OW recipients who had been homeless and 17,635 beneficiaries. The quantity has elevated in nearly each month since.
The homelessness information doesn’t embrace instances on First Nations reserves, which the federal authorities is essentially answerable for.
Of the social help fee recipients who’re homeless, 85 per cent are receiving OW. The remaining 15 per cent are on ODSP.
In comparison with two years in the past, tens of hundreds extra folks now obtain OW. The entire variety of ODSP recipients has remained nearly the identical. The prevalence of each help fee program recipients who’re homeless has elevated for each.
As of July 2024, 1.1 per cent of the 372,858 ODSP instances within the province had been thought of homeless. Of the 276,753 OW instances, 8.1 per cent had been homeless.
In June 2022, 0.9 per cent of the 369,458 ODSP instances had been homeless. Of the 212,361 OW instances that month, 5.2 per cent had been homeless.
The issue of homelessness in Ontario has been getting worse for a while.
A long time of downloading have seen successive provincial and federal governments shift housing and social prices onto municipalities. Many are straining below the burden of homelessness and habit points — municipalities counted greater than 1,400 encampments of their communities final 12 months — and are begging the province and Ottawa to shoulder extra of the burden.
Social help charges had been a scorching matter within the marketing campaign forward of Ontario’s June 2022 election, the month information obtained by The Trillium begins.
The Inexperienced and NDP events promised to double ODSP charges, if elected. The Liberals pledged to lift them by 20 per cent. Later, dealing with stress throughout the marketing campaign, the Progressive Conservatives promised to lift ODSP charges by 5 per cent — about $58 extra monthly for a person — and tie them to inflation. They later did, after being re-elected.
“By tying ODSP will increase to inflation, our authorities helps weak Ontarians hold tempo with the rising prices of life’s necessities, together with housing prices,” the Ministry of Youngsters, Neighborhood and Social Providers stated in an announcement.
No get together pledged a rise in OW charges within the final election.
Monday was not the primary time Ford has taken social help recipients to activity. Reiterating that these on ODSP ought to be supported “for life,” the premier stated final summer time that wholesome folks receiving Ontario Works “drives me crazy.”
“It actually bothers me that we’ve got wholesome folks sitting at dwelling, gathering your hard-earned {dollars}. We have to encourage them to contribute again to the province and discover gainful employment,” he advised a crowd on the Empire Membership of Canada in Toronto.
The Ford authorities has additionally raised the quantity somebody on ODSP can earn via employment, to as much as $1,000 a month, with out it impacting the quantity they obtain via the social help program. It had beforehand been $250.
Many on OW wish to transfer to ODSP, however have been denied — actually because they will’t discover a physician to log out on their ODSP kinds, McNally and Manson stated.
“You can’t walk into a walk-in clinic with a bunch of stacks of forms,” Manson stated. “They don’t have time for that.”
Others are disincentivized from working as a result of authorities clawbacks, “trapping” folks on social help, McNally added.
“You have to be showing that you’re demonstrably going out there and looking for work in order to actually maintain (OW payments),” she stated. “Which is to say that a lot of people who may be on OW, who are homeless, may be actually going to look for jobs, but aren’t finding them.”
One former caseworker, and two individuals who have been via this system, beforehand described it as an “extremely invasive” ordeal that watches your each transfer — financially, professionally, and even romantically.
“People want to be able to work,” Krista Carr, the manager vp of Inclusion Canada, stated.
Inclusion Canada is a nationwide group that advocates for and helps folks with mental disabilities.
“When you are homeless, when you’re unsafely or unsecurely housed, when you don’t have access to transportation … when you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from, you are not in a position to go to work,” Carr stated. “People need to be able to have their basic needs met.”
Manson stated his group, the ODSP Motion Coalition, receives loads of emails from working individuals who sleep of their automobiles as a result of they will’t afford a house.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, these people are spending your hard-earned tax dollars and they’re lazy and there’s something wrong with them because they can’t find a job,” he stated. “And it places the blame squarely on the shoulders of somebody who might be down on their luck.”
—With information from Sneh Duggal
Editor’s be aware: This story was up to date at 7:01 p.m. to incorporate data the Ministry of Youngsters, Neighborhood and Social Providers supplied The Trillium in an announcement after it was revealed.