Affordable housing in Ontario
Learn about programs to help you have a safe and affordable place to call home.
Get affordable housing
Service managers in municipalities oversee affordable housing projects across the province. They use provincial funding to meet local housing needs.
Find your local service manager to see what housing supports are available in your community.
Know your rights as a tenant
In Ontario, rules are in place to protect people who rent their homes. Read the easy-to-understand standard lease, and learn about rent increase limits and how renters are protected against unfair evictions.
Addressing local priorities
The Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative gives local governments flexibility to better meet the needs of people and families who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless.
Flexible housing options
Ontario’s supportive housing system is being transformed to better support seniors, people with mental health and/or addiction issues, people with developmental disabilities, survivors of domestic violence and at-risk youth.
- 355,000 repairs to social and affordable housing units
- 94,000 households receiving help to pay rent or make down payments
- $168 million invested in off-reserve Indigenous households since 2008
Learn about the programs we fund
Investment in Affordable Housing program
Joint federal and provincial funding is available for service managers between 2014 and 2020 through the Investment in Affordable Housing program. This will improve access to suitable, sustainable and affordable housing across Ontario.
Housing for off-reserve Indigenous families
Under the Investment in Affordable Housing Program, to support Indigenous families living off-reserve, we partner with:
- Miziwe Biik Development Corporation, which delivers new affordable rental units and home ownership loans in the Greater Toronto Area
- Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, which delivers new affordable rental units, home ownership loans and repair funding outside of the GTA
The Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative
This initiative provides funding to service managers to replace the federal Social Housing Agreement funding that expires each year, beginning April 2019.
Service managers can use this funding to:
- repair, regenerate and expand community housing
- protect affordability support for tenants
- support community housing providers whose original program arrangements are expiring
- help community housing providers become more sustainable
Service managers are required to give priority to Indigenous housing providers under the Urban Native Housing Program. Funding will also be available to support other legacy social housing providers who have received Social Housing Agreement funding through provincial ministries, such as supportive housing providers.
Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit
This program provides a direct, monthly benefit payment to eligible households to help pay their rent. The benefit payments are:
- portable, which means you may receive the benefits even when you move to another address
- based on the household income and local market rent.
Eligible households include:
- survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking
- people experiencing or at risk of homelessness
- Indigenous people
- seniors
- people with disabilities
To apply, eligible households must be either:
- on, or eligible to be on, the social housing waiting list of a Service Manager
- living in community housing
Contact your local Service Manager for details on eligibility requirements and how to apply.
Households who are approved to receive benefits under this program must consent to be removed from the social housing waiting list of their local Service Manager.
Helping survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking
Survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking may receive priority placement for a social housing unit or portable housing benefit, or they may be eligible for the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit program for a direct, monthly benefit to help pay their rent. This can help the survivor find immediate housing in their community, instead of waiting for a social housing unit to become available.
Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative
The Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative provides flexible funding to all 47 service managers and the two Indigenous program administrators to address local priorities in the areas of housing supply and affordability, including:
- new affordable rental construction
- community housing repair
- rental assistance
- tenant supports
- affordable homeownership