Toronto’s Homelessness Crisis

1 Toronto’s Homelessness Crisis While there exist various ways of defining homelessness, it can perhaps be best described as a situation in which a community, family, or individual does not have a stable, safe, and appropriate housing or the ability and means of acquiring one. Despite Canada’s status as one of the best performing economies globally, a homelessness crisis is present in most cities. The situation has become relevant in Toronto in the present years as the gap between the rich, and the poor continues to increase. The city's homelessness crisis started in the 1980s and has now grown to become a disaster in Canada as a whole.

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2 Homeless people living in the streets and parks across the city have caught the politicians, media, and the international community's attention. It is such a crisis that has resulted in social and economic problems that need to be mitigated. Throughout Toronto, several social justice and anti-poverty groups are working around the clock to ensure that as many people as possible have access to proper housing. This paper explores the level of homelessness in the city, emphasizing how it developed.

Root Causes of the Homelessness Crisis The number of homeless individuals in Toronto has significantly increased over the last three decades. Over 100,000 men, women, youths, and children crowd into Toronto's homeless shelters every year (Fredvictor, 2021). Many more thousands of people sleep in the city’s streets and parks on any given night. There are more than 80,000 families on the social housing waiting list of the city, with close to 200,000 households having to pay over 50% of their income on shelter (Homes First, 2021). The majority of the homeless people in the city are made up of single men. However, the number of homeless women and single-parent families with women as breadwinners has increased in recent years. The last decade has also seen the number of homeless youths or living in shelters proliferate.

Homelessness is not only a personal problem but also a social issue. For instance, when an individual does not have access to affordable housing due to unemployment, the issue becomes individualized. Conversely, when a significant section of the population cannot access affordable and decent housing because of unemployment, it becomes a societal issue.

Nonetheless, the homelessness crisis in Toronto appears less of an individual problem and more of a social problem. Dutton and Jadidzadeh (2019) point out various factors they believe might have caused the homelessness crisis in Toronto. The factors include increasing poverty rates,

3 deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, substance abuse (Annor & Oudshoorn, 2019), cutbacks in public welfare programs, unemployment, reduction in the availability of rent subsidies, as well as inadequate affordable housing. Smith (2017) also echoed these sentiments by pointing out that the city's homelessness crisis is a social problem primarily caused by political, social, and value systems.

In the years preceding the late 1980s, the Canadian government was seriously involved in supporting individuals earning low income and providing adequate housing. This was achieved through the enactment of various government practices and policies. Besides such arrangements, the government improved houses' supply through government-insured mortgages, social housing investment, and subsidies to promote rental housing development (Dutton & Jadidzadeh, 2019).

Through such programs and activities, the Canadian government significantly helped ensure access to sufficient and affordable housing supply throughout its major cities, including Toronto.

The country’s government took it upon itself to ensure that every individual in the country had access to a clean, safe, and affordable house.

Nonetheless, the country's social and economic systems significantly changed from the late 1980s through the 1990s. The years were characterized by severe global and domestic changes in the government and housing policies across the country, which resulted in extreme poverty among the people in the city and Canada (Gaetz et al., 2014). In turn, homelessness increased with poverty. The number of individuals moving to the shanty shelters and streets continued to grow due to housing and government policies and improved living standards.

Homelessness became a significant issue as many across the city and the state continued to lack access to decent, safe, and affordable housing. Little was done to curb the then-emerging social problem, thus becoming the crisis experienced today in Toronto.

4 According to Grenier et al. (2016), the Canadian government has not prioritized solving the city's homelessness problem or the country as a whole. The authors are quick to point out that only a small portion of the Canadian government's resources have been directed towards enhancing the housing conditions. This has seen the demand for housing surpassing its supply primarily due to government policies and the government's insignificant effort in solving the homelessness crisis. Gaetz (2018) also adds that there is not enough affordable housing for lowincome earners in Toronto as housing demand surpasses the available government funds to facilitate the development of effective social housing programs. Thus, the current homelessness crisis in Toronto is primarily caused by the government’s cutbacks in social housing.

Dutton and Jadidzadeh (2019) consider economic and social policy failures as the primary causes of the homelessness crisis in Toronto. It has become challenging for most people in the city to meet their housing demands. Annor and Oudshoorn (2019) also support this narrative by pointing out that homelessness results from various economic, social, and health factors. They argue that it mostly results from economic issues like poverty, economic downturn, loss of a job, the increased gap between income and affordability, low earnings, and insufficient stock of affordable housing. Further, it can also emanate from such social and health issues as family conflict, substance abuse issues, mental health issues, inadequate child protection services, as well as poor discharge planning for people exiting the social assistance system, mental health facilities, or prison system (Annor & Oudshoorn, 2019). These factors are increasing the homelessness crisis in Toronto at an alarming rate in recent years.

Instead of addressing the homeliness crisis once and for all by providing affordable housing to low-income earning individuals, the Canadian government has consistently been trying to contain the issue by using temporary measures that involve the construction of

5 temporary measures. Currently, homelessness costs the Canadian economy more than $8 billion per year (Annor & Oudshoorn, 2019). It includes costs related to community support and emergency shelters and health care and emergency services like police and fire. Gaetz (2018) is quick to point out that the cost the government incurs in building temporary shelters for the homeless in the city is much higher than what it would have incurred in developing affordable housing and implementing rent supplements for the affected individuals. Putting someone in housing is not only much more humane but also cheaper. Remaining homeless for so long increases the chances of having their mental or physical health deteriorate (Annor & Oudshoorn, 2019). Further, the chance of early death also increases as one continues to stay in the cold for so long.

In Toronto and Canada, homelessness has resulted in various social problems that include malnutrition, underemployment, unemployment, mental illness, and family conflict.

Such problems are the primary reasons why the country and its major cities continue to experience severe homelessness crises amid its social and economic prosperity (Gaetz et al., 2014). The number of people surviving on low incomes in the city has not reduced as thousands of them are believed to be spending close to three-quarters of their income on basic needs. This implies that homeless individuals across the city and the state are living in abject poverty. The living standards and fuel prices, and food commodities increase despite the people’s income remaining static. Thus, many are forced to move to makeshift tents and the street because of their inability to pay rent (Gaetz et al., 2014). Such development has caused the homelessness crisis, which has resulted from increased poverty among the inhabitants of the city.

Fingers have been pointed at the Canadian government for the increased homelessness crisis in major cities, including Toronto. This has primarily been due to such government

6 activities as the inability to offer stable employment for the citizens, tightened eligibility requirements for housing programs, budget cuts, and social housing withdrawal (Gaetz et al., 2014). The government’s inability to offer stable employment has led to unemployment, which has significantly made it impossible to afford a decent house due to poverty. According to Gaetz et al. (2014), the country's homeliness problem can be substantially attributed to the increasing levels of poverty and the media's perception of homeless people as criminals, spoiled pathetic, and needy instead of portraying them as individuals in need. Such kind of perception by the media has caused the concerned parties to be disinterested in the homeless.

Further, Gaetz (2018) also cites the country's national housing strategy's disengagement as one of the most significant causes of homelessness. The government resorted to budget cuts to minimize its debt, thus adversely affecting its social spending. Despite generating surpluses, budget cuts contributed to the infrastructure deficit, particularly in the housing industry. The 1980s reduction in government spending on social and affordable housing inhibited new affordable housing stock, thus causing housing shortages. In the 1990s, the national government devolved the social housing responsibility to the provincial government, which led to the homelessness problem. Many people in the city could not afford private sector housing. The private sector has, over the years, concentrated on developing houses without considering lowincome-earning individuals. This has widely been perceived as an act of discrimination against the low-income earners in the city by the private sector. The government did no good to the city other than introducing it to the homelessness crisis it experiences today.

Conclusion In summary, Toronto’s homelessness crisis is a social problem that has been promoted by the economic, political, and social system changes outside the control of the individuals

7 experiencing homelessness. As such, thousands of people across the city of Toronto are currently experiencing the homelessness problem. The Canadian government’s decision in the 1980s and the 1990s to overhaul housing programs and policies form the basis of homelessness in the city and the country. Apart from being a social problem, the homelessness crisis in the city of Toronto has become chronic. It is a social problem that has been associated with many factors that include substance abuse, increased poverty levels, discrimination, mental health issues, and unemployment. The primary cause of homelessness in the city remains to be poverty. Despite heavy investment in the private sector's housing sector, Toronto is still characterized by inadequate affordable housing for the low-income earning population. The government’s policy changes regarding housing have shifted to what is perceived as a dehousing policy from a housing policy. For instance, in the 1980s and 1990s, the government did away with national housing programs and then slashed its expenditures on affordable housing schemes. That notwithstanding, it also crumbled affordable housing and the social housing stock, thereby causing homelessness.

8 References Annor, B. O. H., & Oudshoorn, A. (2019). The health challenges of families experiencing homelessness. Housing, Care, and Support, 22(2), 93-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/HCS12-2018-0036 Dutton, D.J., & Jadidzadeh, A. (2019). The incidence of homelessness in Canada is a populationlevel phenomenon: a comparison of Toronto and Calgary shelter use over time. Canadian Studies in Population, 46(2), 161-171.

Fredvictor, (2021). Facts about homelessness in Toronto. https://www.fredvictor.org/facts-abouthomelessness-in-toronto/ Gaetz, S. (2018). Reflections from Canada: Can research contribute to better responses to youth homelessness? Cityscape, 20(3), 139-146.

Gaetz, S., Gulliver, T., & Richter, T. (2014). The state of homelessness in Canada 2014. The Homeless Hub Press. https://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/SOHC2014.pdf Grenier, A., Barken, R., Sussman, T., Rothwell, D., Bourgeois-Guérin, V., & Lavoie, J. P. (2016). A literature review of homelessness and aging: Suggestions for a policy and practice-relevant research agenda. Canadian Journal on Aging, 35(1), 28-41.

Homes First (2021). About Toronto homelessness. https://homesfirst.on.ca/about-torontohomelessness/#:~:text=For%20every%2010%2C000%20people%20in,cent%20live %20with%20an%20addiction.

Smith, A. (2017). Filling the gap: cities and the fight against homelessness in Canada. https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/handle/1866/18520