Metropolitan Toronto Task Force On Housing For Low-Income Single People: Final Report
Organization profile published 1984

Year Published:  1984
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX3020

Abstract: 
An acute shortage of housing for low-income single people led the Council of Metropolitan Toronto to set up a task force in 1983. Its report, aimed at planning bodies at the three levels of government and addressed to all concerned individuals and groups, draws on public meetings, discussions with needy singles, professionals and involved groups, and case-studies (all-detailed in the appendices) to present findings and make recommendations.

Over the last two decades the number of single-person households in Toronto has increased and the amount of suitable accommodation has decreased. Developers have bought and demolished smaller units rather than convert them, and upwardly mobile households have displaced roomers in the downtown core. The available options for single people constraints on their effectiveness in meeting the need.

To its four guiding questions the Task Force responds that:
1) the public and non-profit housing sectors, rather than private developers, were the logical and practical
sources of more housing for singles;
2) socal support for the "hard to house" and programs to encourage preservation and conversion of units
were required to improve existing housing"
3) to make housing more accessible for singles eligibility for financial assistance must be widened; and
4)specialized supportive housing was needed for young people.

Many specific recommendations are made for Metro municipalities, provincial ministries and CMHC. These include reviews of municipal regulaitons, land and housing stock, more financial assistnace and unit allocations for singles, funding for pilot projects and a commitment to hostels or independent living houses for young people.

This organization no longer exists.
This abstract was published in the Connexions Digest in 1984.