Compare these average monthly costs of housing and homelessness: social housing ($199.92); shelter bed ($1,932); provincial jail ($4,333); hospital bed ($10,900).
Though the cost of building social housing is dramatically cheaper, Toronto continues to spend more than $118 million a year on temporary beds in the hostel system. Moving 10% of shelter users into affordable homes, however, would save the City nearly $12 million, freeing up enough money to pay the capital subsidies on 160 new homes, or rent supplements for over 1,400 households.
These are a few of the figures provided in the Blueprint to End Homelessness, a 10-year plan put together by Michael Shapcott of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and the Wellesley Institute. The plan aims to build 200,000 affordable homes and renovated homes in Toronto. It’s being released today and you can download it here [PDF].
The plan includes an analysis of every ward in the city. For example, in ward 26 — which mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield has represented since 1998 — zero affordable units have been built since 2001, zero units are under development, and zero shelter beds are currently available. Sadly, 27.7% of the people living in ward 26 have low incomes, well above the Toronto average. (Pitfield, it should be pointed out, was chair of the City’s Homeless and Socially Isolated Committee and the Aboriginal Affairs Committee.)
Here are a few things you can do to support the Blueprint:
1. Email your MPs, MPPs, and City Councillors [all links are to Excel files].
2. Add a ‘badge‘ (such as the one pictured above,) or a smaller one, to your website to show your support.
3. Download a postcard [PDF] that can be mailed to your local politicians. Mailing to Federal Members of Parliament is free at their Parliamentary address in Ottawa. Unfortunately, postage is required for MPPs and City Councilors.
