Ending Homelessness

The promise

Toronto will end chronic homelessness within 10 years, and cut it in half within my first term. Every person living outside will be offered a real home, not a tent, a hotel room or a bus ticket out of sight.

The method is Housing First: give people a permanent, safe home first, then bring health, mental health, addictions and income support to them. It is the only approach proven to end chronic homelessness at scale, and it costs less than leaving people in emergency rooms, shelters and police cells.

The goal will not be a slogan. I will ask Council to adopt it as a binding City target, with a public progress report every year.

Why the current approach is failing

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario counts more than 80,000 people homeless across the province, and warns the number could reach nearly 300,000 by 2035 without action. Toronto carries the largest share.

• We manage the crisis instead of ending it. Money goes to hotels, emergency shelters and clearing encampments, so people cycle back to the same park.
• There is nowhere to go. Shelters are full, and supportive housing with care attached is in short supply.
• Public land gets sold off instead of being used for homes people can afford.
• Services are scattered. Housing, health, mental health and income help sit in separate systems with separate waitlists.
• The City pays for the Province’s gaps. Mental health, addictions and income support are provincial responsibilities, but Toronto taxpayers absorb the cost on the street.

The plan: what I will deliver as mayor

1. A one-year emergency push. In my first year, the City will move people from the largest encampments and the longest shelter stays into permanent homes, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, with outreach workers who know them by name.

2. Housing First, City-wide. Every program the City funds will start with a permanent home and bring supports to the person, not the other way around.

3. Supportive housing with care built in. The City will partner with hospitals, health teams and community agencies so every supportive home comes with mental health, addictions and health care on site or on call.

4. Public land stays public. No City land will be sold to developers. It will be used for supportive, deeply affordable, co-op and non-profit homes, built through land trusts and long-term leases.

5. Faster homes, including tiny homes and modular builds. Tiny homes and modular units will bridge the gap while permanent buildings go up, on City sites with services connected.

6. Community partners at the centre. Faith groups, non-profits, co-ops and neighbourhood organizations will get City land, fast approvals and stable funding to house people in their own communities.

7. One door to help. A single coordinated entry point for housing, health, income and ID support, so no one has to tell their story ten times.

8. No encampment clearing without a real home offer. People will not be pushed from park to park. Encampments close when the people in them have somewhere better to go.

9. Prevention first. Stop people losing their homes: a stronger rent bank, eviction-prevention legal help, and the tenant protections in my Fair Deal for Toronto Tenants.

10. No one discharged to the street. Agreements with hospitals, jails and youth care so people leave with a home arranged, not an address for a shelter.

11. Crisis care, not police, for mental health calls. Expand the Toronto Community Crisis Service so trained crisis workers answer mental health calls. As mayor, from the Police Services Board seat, I will push priorities toward harm reduction and prevention.

12. Use what we already have, better. Existing City programs and funding streams will be audited for unused capacity and redirected to homes. Work will be done by City crews and community partners, not new outside contracts.

13. Communities consulted first. Before a supportive home or shelter opens, the neighbourhood will get plain-language information, a real say on how it works, and a public report on what changed.

Youth homelessness

More than a third of young people experiencing homelessness in Canada are in Ontario, according to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Stopping youth homelessness now prevents adult homelessness later.

• Youth-specific homes. Dedicated youth housing with mentors and life-skills support, separate from the adult shelter system.
• A safety net for youth leaving care. No young person aging out of foster or group care will leave without housing and a trusted adult to call.
• Help families stay together. Family mediation and support so conflict at home does not end with a teenager on the street.
• Safe for 2SLGBTQ+ and newcomer youth. Groups at the highest risk get services built for them.
• A path to work and school. Housing linked to jobs, apprenticeships, City training programs and my neighbourhood incubators.
• Protection from exploitation. Homeless youth are prime targets for traffickers, so outreach, safe beds and the End Trafficking TO strategy will work together.

What I will fight for at Queen’s Park and Ottawa

A mayor cannot do this alone. These are provincial and federal responsibilities, and I will press for them loudly and in partnership with other Ontario mayors.

• A provincial law to end homelessness, with a 10-year deadline and public reporting, like the Homelessness Ends with Housing Act (Bill 28) that Queen’s Park voted down.
• Upload the costs that belong to the Province: mental health, addictions treatment and social assistance.
• Raise ODSP and Ontario Works so people on assistance can afford rent.
• Restore real rent control on all units, including those built after 2018.
• Renew and expand the Canada Housing Benefit and stable federal funding for supportive and non-market housing.

How it is paid for and how we measure it

This plan is funded by spending smarter and asking those who can most afford it to pay their fair share, not by squeezing working families.

Paying for it

• Shift money from crisis to homes. Every person housed costs less than repeated hotel stays, ER visits and police calls. Savings are reinvested in housing.
• Make speculators pay. Strengthen the vacant-home tax and luxury-home taxes, and dedicate the revenue to homes.
• Use public land instead of buying land. Building on City land cuts the cost of every home.
• Unlock what is already funded. Audit existing City programs for unused money and capacity.
• Claim our share. Pursue every provincial and federal housing dollar Toronto is owed.

Measuring it

• An annual public report to Council on chronic homelessness, youth homelessness and homes delivered.
• A live online dashboard tracking homes built, people housed and how many stay housed after one year.
• An independent count of people experiencing homelessness every two years.
• If a program is not housing people, the money moves to one that is.

Read the full article: A Real Answer to Homelessness. More on housing: Housing First and a Real Answer to Homelessness and Housing.