海角社区官网

The apartment聽is what more than 85,000 Torontonians are desperately waiting for聽鈥� a subsidized home where their rent is adjusted to 30 per cent of the household鈥檚 income. His parents secured their subsidized living arrangement in this downtown neighbourhood when Ahia was just eight years old, offering their family stability as market rents increased.聽

Now 28聽and a young parent himself, Ahia wants to move out. But those ever-climbing rents have created a widening chasm between their current costs and the bills they would face in the private market 鈥� making it harder and harder to leave, despite the tight quarters at home.聽鈥淲e鈥檙e just stuck,鈥� Ahia said.聽

It’s a picture of a broader problem in Toronto’s housing system. As rents continue to climb faster than incomes, the need for subsidized housing has only deepened. Little new supply has been built in recent decades, so those on the wait-list are largely relying on turnover. But those same soaring rents that keep the wait-list swollen can make it prohibitively hard for current tenants like Ahia to move out聽鈥� even if a home no longer fits their needs.

Their family looked very different when they first arrived in Regent Park. The neighbourhood did, too聽鈥� before the sweeping revitalization project that has been gradually reforming an area previously dominated by public housing blocks into a mixed-income neighbourhood, with gleaming new towers and amenities.

His parents were new immigrants who found warmth in the sizable Bangladeshi community in the area. As the years have gone by, the family has lived in three apartments of a similar size within Regent Park 鈥� an older pre-revitalization home at first, then a temporary unit while waiting on a replacement spot in a new tower, and their current home once the building was finished in 2015, where wide windows overlook the changing neighbourhood.

With an eye to working in his community, Ahia completed his post-secondary studies in social work at George Brown College two years ago. He volunteered to pad his resume, and eventually landed a part-time, entry-level聽job聽as a drop-in centre support worker with for nearby social agency Fred Victor.聽

But earning $20 per hour is聽simply not enough to afford market rents, he said, leaving聽him feeling frustrated and trapped. He wants to stay in Toronto,聽as leaving would bring聽other costs, such as needing to聽buy聽a car and pay for child care his parents currently聽assist with.

So for now, he and his wife are sticking it out in the crowded apartment, hoping they can eventually afford to move. 鈥淚鈥檝e been working hard my whole life, going to school, getting an education, trying to put my community first. I just want a place to live where I can pay rent and pay for groceries,鈥� Ahia said.

海角社区官网Community Housing Corp. data shows their tenancies are聽getting longer聽鈥� with the average stay in a unit hitting 12.6 years in 2023, up from 9.97 years in 2020.聽Meanwhile, the city’s subsidized housing wait-list moves slowly, with fewer than 2,800 individuals and families housed last year.聽

Across Toronto, the rise in rents post-pandemic poses a mounting a challenge for lower-income earners. A full-time minimum wage worker would have had to spend more than half their income to rent the average bachelor unit in the GTA last year,聽the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. found, noting the smallest and most affordable private market options have seen the most dramatic decrease in vacancies 鈥� the very kind of rental housing that might offer聽a stepping stone out of the public system for someone like Ahia.聽

With scarce options in the private market, Ahia and his wife have applied for their own subsidized unit, but know聽Sahira could be a teenager before an offer arrives. Their only option for now is to wait, Ahia said聽鈥� until he can聽secure a job with more hours and better pay, and the baby is old enough for his wife to work too.聽

That reality has a ripple effect. If he and his brother were able to move out, his parents might downsize and free up the larger apartment for another family, Ahia pointed out.聽

罢辞谤辞苍迟辞’蝉听聽says moving families out of too-large homes is a priority. The same does not apply聽to too-small homes, though, with the manual suggesting those households return to the bottom of the wait-list.聽

The prevalence of families stuck in public housing that doesn’t fit their needs was recently put on the radar of Toronto鈥檚 municipal officials. At a recent city council meeting, Chris Moise聽鈥� councillor for the Regent Park area聽鈥� put forward a motion urging 海角社区官网Community Housing Corp. to address overcrowding as it launches the next phase of the revitalization effort.

鈥淗ousehold composition in Regent Park has significantly changed since revitalization began in 2007, causing both growth and shrinkage in family size. My office has been inundated with distress calls and emails from residents grappling with living conditions that do not meet the needs of their families,鈥� he wrote.聽

While there was once an internal transfer wait-list to move tenants into the rightsized units, Moise鈥檚 motion claimed that had been 鈥渄iscontinued without resolving their housing situations.鈥� His motion, which passed without debate, urged the housing agency to review its tenancies in Regent Park, identify anyone living in an overcrowded unit and consider offering them a transfer.

TCHC, in a statement, said while internal transfers due to crowding had historically been a priority for them,聽it started rethinking the process a few years ago. There was an “internal discussion” about directing those households to get back on the wait-list around 2018-19, spokesperson Robin Smith said.聽

“That decision was never formalized聽with tenants,聽however, it may have聽created some confusion,” spokesperson Robin Smith wrote. While there were still instances where TCHC was approving these transfers, especially where a unit was severely overcrowded, Smith said TCHC was currently reviewing its policies.

He cautioned that Moise’s motion was specific to Regent Park, and the agency did not have neighbourhood-specific policies聽鈥� but vowed that TCHC would follow聽up on the motion and report back “as needed.”聽

Considering his life today, Ahia is grateful for elements of their living arrangement. Being across the hall means he can聽easily help his parents with their taxes or assist with language barriers, while benefiting from their support and guidance as a new dad.

But looking around his community, he doesn’t see much hope among tenants of moving up in the market. Many neighbours are on social assistance: programs like Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program, which offer a single person a few hundred dollars per month to cover housing bills. Others were like him聽鈥� simply unable to find anything affordable enough to give up their subsidized home, even if it no longer worked for their family.

鈥淚 just feel like most people are here forever,鈥� Ahia said.