York Region advancing work to increase housing affordability

Housing affordability remains a key issue in York Region and demand for housing and homelessness services provided by the Region and its partners continues to increase.

York Region’s first 10-year housing and homelessness plan, Housing Solutions: a place for everyone, was approved by Council in June 2014 and updated in October 2019. Progress is reported annually to Council.

Goals in the plan include:

•    Increasing the supply of affordable rental housing 
•    Helping people find and keep housing  
•    Strengthening the Housing and Homelessness System

Of the 46 actions in the Region’s 2023 Action Plan, 40 have been completed with work continuing into 2024, including:

• From 2019 to 2023, 1,294 people successfully transitioned from emergency housing to permanent housing and 671 people were diverted from entering emergency housing to alternative housing options
• Two new transitional housing sites opened in the Towns of Georgina and East Gwillimbury, adding 28 new units to the emergency and transitional housing system
• In 2023, the Region began providing annual funding for Inn From The Cold to extend its emergency housing and homelessness services and supports to year-round operations, adding 25 ongoing emergency housing beds
• Since 2019 the Region housed 2,800 households from the subsidized housing wait list through community housing, rent supplement units and portable housing benefits
• York Region helped a significant number of households from the waitlist access Community housing and rent benefits, continued support purpose-built rental through development charges deferrals, and expanded emergency and transitional housing capacity
• Since 2019, York Region built almost 460 new community housing units, including Unionville Commons opening in 2023, providing 265 market and subsidized rental homes of seniors in the City of Markham. Approximately 497 more units are in planning and development

Federal and provincial funding has been critical to advancing Housing Solutions, but predictable and long-term funding is needed to effectively plan. The Region will continue to advocate for long-term funding commitments from the federal and provincial government, including the expansion the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to add more households, and establishing a trilateral table to include Service Managers in negotiations for the final three-year allocations of cost-shared funding under the National Housing Strategy. York Region is requesting the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Members of Provincial Parliament who represent York Region for an increase of $7 million to York Region’s annual Provincial Homelessness Prevention Program allocation, starting in 2025, to fund operating costs of the rapid deployment actions.

More information about housing in York Region can be found at york.ca/Housing