Affordable housing has been a challenge for many people in Halton, especially for single moms threatened with homelessness despite social assistance and programming support from local charities like Home Suite Hope (HSH).
According to HSH, the cost of an average two-bedroom property has shot up to $2,500 in Halton, an increase of $300 over the last year.
"It's been the toughest year," shared Sara J. Cumming, HSH's executive director. An expert in this field for over 20 years now, she argued that the plight of single mothers in Halton region is 'problematic and the gap between the rich and the poor in Oakville particularly, is really high."
An Oakville charity focused on helping single-parent families, HSH launched a campaign to build affordable housing for homeless mothers last year.
Callum Wallace, a young Oakville pilot flying around the world in August to help raise awareness about the lack of affordable housing, is a little below halfway to his million-dollar goal for the Flight For Hope campaign. After his return, the charity will organize a gala to celebrate Callum's flight and publicly launch the need for accessible, affordable housing for programming like HSH. In the meantime, it's collaborating with developers to supply long-term rentals at an affordable price in their new constructions.
Let alone dreaming of owning affordable apartments, HSH is grappling with the rising costs of supporting moms with rental subsidies.
The Halton region's funding allows the organization to pay a rental subsidy on roughly 17 units in the community. While that amount stays the same year after year, housing costs have inflated at such rates that single moms can't afford these rents despite using money from social assistance and child support, Cumming observed.
"So if a mom gets $1,142 from Ontario Works, which is pretty much what the maximum of any mom in my program gets, I would pay $800 a month in rental subsidy for her to get a $1,400 apartment," she cited as an example. Naturally, when the rent of an apartment goes up, the mom has to use money from her child tax credit or other pool of money to make up for the gap.
In the current scenario of the cost-of-living crisis, "That just means they have less money for utilities and groceries. And a cell phone and internet connection are no more considered luxuries today," she observed.
The situation is worse for moms with two or more children of a different gender. "It's a legal requirement that she keep the kids in separate rooms in that case and rent a two-bedroom apartment. Now imagine even if I give them $1,000 for rental subsidy, and they use their $1,142 from social assistance, they're still homeless because they still don't make enough money to pay for that rent," Cumming pointed out.
In light of such a crisis, HSH has drastically reduced the number of women in its program to pay way more in rental subsidies for the women not to be homeless anymore. "We're actually being forced to decrease our capacity so that they can sustain the rent increase," Cumming shared.
Renting long-term apartments in various locations across Halton could bring some relief to these moms, and HSH is working towards securing $1.5 million for that.
"Obviously, I would like to have my own apartment building where my moms come in and where they're safe, where they can attend their schooling and programming in the building. But I have to find creative and innovative ways to make money to pay for long-term subsidized rentals," Cumming added.