Ontario Urges Partners to Help End Homelessness Now
January 11, 2017
Ministry of Housing
Today Chris Ballard, Minister of Housing and Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, addressed the Canada-Ontario Homelessness Summit and issued a call to action to all levels of government, homelessness prevention advocates, and the private sector to work together to end chronic homelessness in Ontario.
Minister Ballard’s call to action echoed the goal of the two-day Canada-Ontario Homelessness Summit, which aims to strengthen partnerships and share innovative practices towards preventing and ending homelessness.
More than 200 community partners from across the province are in attendance at the summit, including Community Advisory Boards, Local Health Integration Networks, Service Managers, Indigenous partners and people with lived experience of homelessness.
Over two days of programming, attendees will share best practices and bring new strategies back to their communities to address local affordable housing and homelessness challenges.
Promoting more affordable housing and ending chronic homelessness is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.
Quick Facts
- The 2016 Ontario Budget announced an investment of $178 million over three years to support the updated Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy.
- Ontario is increasing funding by $15 million each year for the next three years to the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) bringing our annual CHPI investment to $338.7 million by 2019-20.
- The CHPI reinforces the bold and transformative update to Ontario’s Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy, and supports the province’s goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2025.
- Since 2013, Ontario has committed more than $2.4 billion to affordable housing. This includes the recent federal-provincial partnership to extend the Investment in Affordable Housing program.
Additional Resources
- Promoting Affordable Housing Act
- Inclusionary Zoning
- Ontario’s Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy
- Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy
- A Place to Call Home: Report of the Expert Advisory Panel on Homelessness [PDF]
Quotes
“We recognize that all of us have a shared responsibility to the most vulnerable among us and the communities we call home. To stop the cycle of homelessness, we all need to rise to this urgent challenge – federal, provincial and municipal governments, community agencies, and the private sector. We will only reach our goal by working together. The time to end homelessness is now.”
“Our Government is committed to improving the economic and social wellbeing of all Canadians, to give everyone the chance to succeed, and to ensure all Canadians can live in dignity. Preventing and reducing homelessness is a shared responsibility and it requires coordinated effort at the national, provincial, and local levels. I commend all participants at the 2017 Canada-Ontario Homelessness Summit for the excellent work you are doing to combat homelessness in Ontario, and thank you for taking the time to participate. Together we can continue to move towards ending homelessness.”
Media Contacts
Conrad Spezowka
Communications Branch
Conrad.Spezowka@ontario.ca
416-585-7066
Laura Gallant
Minister’s Office
laura.gallant@ontario.ca
416-585-6333
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