April 18, 2017 Opinion:
The affordable housing crisis no doubt has many causes, one of which is manufactured by the current Ontario Government’s staunch defence of the anachronistic prohibition on our province’s low-income disabled population from entering live-in relationships with working Ontarians. Unlike other progressive developed countries, Ontario is still operating with the mentality of the ancient Poor Laws- refusing to provide social supports on an individual basis and thus barring any disabled person dependent on ODSP for their autonomy (personal, social, financial and medical) from openly living with their mate.
First some facts:
- 70 to 80% of Canadian adults live together as a couple (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-209-x/2013001/article/11788/fig/fig4-eng.htm).
- In comparison, as of the latest statistics (November, 2016) only 12.76% of Ontario’s low-income disabled population identify as living as a couple; that is 303,992 ‘single’ adults on ODSP (see http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/social/reports/ODSP_EN_2016-11.pdf).
- According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), in 2016 Ontario started construction on 74,952 units (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/manuf05-eng.htm).
With a simple modernization of a regulation, these Ontarians, many of whom are currently making ad-hoc arrangements to maintain an independent residence from their long term partners to comply with the ODSP rules, would be able to openly enjoy love and relationships while instantly increasing Ontario’s available affordable housing spaces.
This regulatory change would not only advance Ontario’s human rights and treatment of people with disabilities (something that is going to happen anyway- through an expensive court process) while saving the embarrassment of policing relationships (see http://canlii.ca/t/gtzx2 for one Monty-Python-esque example of what Ontario is spending money on!) – it would also no doubt provide a principled step forward to resolving the affordable housing dilemma.