Chow calls on feds for more funding as applications reopen for rental supplements

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow again called on the federal government Monday for more funding to address the city's housing crisis, as she announced that applications have reopened for a program that aims to help find homes for people living in shelters or on the street.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow again called on the federal government Monday for more funding to address the city's housing crisis, as she announced that applications have reopened for a program that aims to help find homes for people living in shelters or on the street.

Last week, the city and provincial governments signed an agreement to jointly invest an additional $13.4 million in the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB), which provides rental supplements and helps match applicants with available homes.

At a news conference, Chow said the one-time top-up of funds will help 1,350 people find a place to live, including many recently arrived refugee claimants and asylum seekers.

"The refugee crisis situation is getting worse," Chow told reporters. She noted that until recently, about 50 per cent of the applicants who received funding through COHB since its creation in 2020 were refugees. That figure is now up to 70 per cent, she said.

Chow said the federal government should immediately come to the table with an additional $26 million for the program, given the strain on Toronto's shelter system and financial resources caused by a continuing influx of refugees and asylum seekers.

"This is clearly a federal responsibility and we need their help," she said.

Chow's call for further federal financial support comes in the wake of a staff report last week that painted a grim picture of Toronto's fiscal future without additional revenue tools and revised funding agreements with other levels of government.