Providing More Affordable Housing for Women in Ontario

The Government of Ontario has passed omnibus amendments to many planning and housing
laws including Bill 23-More Homes Built Faster Act which removes protected land from the
greenbelt to meet development targets, limits the ability of municipalities to block
development, reduces development fees, all with the specific goal of increasing the housing
supply by incentivizing the construction of 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. The
changes the Government of Ontario has made does not included increased proportions of
required affordable housing and only used the definition of affordable housing rates to 80%
of market rates in lieu of to include rental housing for low to moderate income Ontarians at
rates proportionate to 50% to 60% of median income. A large proportion of these Ontarians
who would benefit from more affordable rental housing are female working in essential
professions.
There are housing funding models available to be used in Ontario. An example is the state of
New Jersey with the Fair Share Housing Law. This law requires that municipalities participate
in the Fair Share plans which ensures twenty percent of newly built units are reserved for
low- and moderate-income families when the development is financed with state funds or on
property owned by the state. This program is funded by The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
program. BPW Ontario believes that at least twenty percent of the quota of units being
developed need to be affordable to people at or below fifty percent of median Ontario
provincial income and forty percent of the quota of units be affordable to those at or below
sixty percent.
Page 10 of 10 August 2023
References
Dentons. (2022). Shovels in the around for Ontario. The province announces the more homes
built faster act to address housing crisis. Retrieved from
https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2022/october/25/shovels-in-the-groundfor-
ontario
Dentons (a). (2022). Part 2: Shovels in the around for Ontario. The province announces the
more homes built faster act to address housing crisis. Retrieved from
https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2022/november/9/part-2-shovels-in-theground-
for-ontario
Government of Ontario. (2022). Report of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force.
Retrieved from https://files.ontario.ca/mmah-housing-affordability-task-force-report-en-
2022-02-07-v2.pdf
Government of Ontario. (2023). Housing in Ontario. Retrieved from
https://www.ontario.ca/page/affordable-housing-ontario
Government of Ontario (2022). More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022, S.O. 2022, c. 12 – Bill
109. Retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/s22012
State of New Jersey. (2023). New Jersey guide to affordable housing. Retrieved from
https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/publications/guide.html”,THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Business and Professional Women of Ontario (BPW