Doug Ford could help solve Ontario’s homelessness crisis in one simple, low-cost step

Posted on March 23, 2026 in Social Security Policy Context

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Contributors
March 23, 2026.   Neil Hetherington, Contributor

The signs are impossible to ignore. Packed shelters, growing encampments, overcrowded hospital emergency rooms — Ontario’s homelessness crisis is getting worse.

With the 2026 provincial budget coming soon, there is one simple, low-cost step the Ford government could take to help thousands of people exit homelessness and ease pressure on our already-stretched emergency systems.

The province’s social-assistance programs — Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program — include monthly allowances for basic needs and shelter, but recipients with no fixed address are ineligible for the shelter portion, which totals $390 for OW and $599 for ODSP per single adult.

That can make saving for first and last months’ rent nearly impossible. The result is a costly and avoidable cycle: people without homes remain in shelters or unsafe situations because they cannot access the supports they need to help them secure housing.

The solution is straightforward: permit unhoused OW and ODSP recipients to save their shelter allowances in a reserve fund for up to 12 months. Held in escrow and released only when a recipient has secured housing, this money could help cover first and last months’ rent. With this small change, Premier Doug Ford could remove a major barrier to escaping homelessness.

It is a barrier many Ontarians are all too familiar with — including Marc, a client of Daily Bread Food Bank.

Marc lost his Toronto home in 2024 and ended up sleeping in subway stations. For months, the TTC was his refuge; then an outreach worker helped him find a shelter bed. Marc now receives support through ODSP and assistance to pursue training courses. Still, a place he can truly call home remains painfully out of reach.

He is not alone: according to data from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, nearly 85,000 Ontarians were known to be homeless in 2025, an increase of almost eight per cent over one year and nearly 50 per cent since 2021. These figures reflect a growing number of people compelled to cycle between shelters, encampments, temporary accommodations and hospitals, often while struggling to manage disabilities and employment changes.

Among Ontarians receiving social assistance, the trend is even more alarming. More than 30,000 were without a home as of July 2025, up 72 per cent since 2019. And AMO warns that even in a stable economy, homelessness will not only continue to grow exponentially but also become far more complex and costly to address.

This rise in homelessness is unfolding as poverty and food insecurity deepen across the province. In 2024, poverty in Ontario had increased 70 per cent since 2020, and a quarter of the population — including one in three children — lived in food-insecure households. Food banks are seeing the results of this strain first-hand: more than a million Ontarians used food banks last year. Toronto alone recorded 4.1 million individual visits.

For people living near the brink, small but targeted changes to income supports can have an outsize impact, providing resources they need to help rebuild their lives.

Of course, creating a shelter reserve fund would not solve Ontario’s homelessness crisis on its own — but it would remove a significant impediment to accessing stable, long-term housing.

It also makes good fiscal sense. Spending on emergency shelters in Ontario reached $1.2 billion in 2025, a 60 per cent increase in four years. A recent study in Toronto found the average annual cost of health care for people experiencing homelessness was almost seven times higher than for people with homes, at $12,209.

If half of unhoused social-assistance recipients could access an accumulated shelter allowance, it would mean $80 million of already-earmarked funds could flow directly toward helping secure stable housing. That amounts to just 6.6 per cent of Ontario’s current spending on emergency shelters; it is also equivalent to one-fifth of the total annual health-care costs associated with people who are unhoused.

The Ford government, in weighing its fiscal and policy priorities for the 2026 provincial budget, now has a clear opportunity to act. A simple, pragmatic reform could help thousands of Ontarians take their first steps away from homelessness — and help us ensure all Ontarians can live with dignity.

Neil Hetherington is the CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/doug-ford-could-help-solve-ontarios-homelessness-crisis-in-one-simple-low-cost-step/article_7b0cf215-78e5-48e7-b16b-ac6cabf7aaac.html

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