The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association says politicians must find meaningful solutions to the affordable housing crisis.
Executive Director Marlene Coffey said Ontario has the dubious honour of being harder hit than anywhere else in the country.
Data from the Canadian Rental Housing Index finds Canada's worsening rental housing affordability crisis is impacting Ontario and British Columbia electoral districts the hardest. It's also a major issue for workforce recruitment in midwestern Ontario.
In Bruce, Grey and Wellington County, between 17 per cent and 18 per cent of households spend more than 50 per cent of their income on rent and utilities. In Perth County, it's 12 per cent and in Huron, 15 per cent of renters are paying that much. The provincial average is 21 per cent.
The average monthly rent ranges from $800 in Huron County to about $1000 in Wellington County.
And the median income ranges from about $32,000 in Grey County to nearly $45,000 in Wellington County.
Out of the top 20 federal ridings with the worst affordability challenges, the index finds 11 of them are in Ontario while six are in British Columbia
The 2019 Index is also putting a face to those most impacted by these affordability challenges such as single mothers, Indigenous renter households, new immigrants, Canadians under the age of 30, and seniors, who are all facing higher levels of overspending on rental housing than the Canadian average.
The data show that half (50 per cent) of single-mother renter households in Canada are spending over the recommended affordability benchmark of 30 per cent of income, while almost one in four (22 per cent) are in a crisis level of spending.
The 2019 index shows that renters under the age of 30 and seniors are more likely to live in unaffordable conditions. Nearly one-quarter (23 per cent) of young renter households are at a crisis level of spending, and over half (50 per cent) of senior-led renter households spend over the recommended benchmark of 30 per cent.
"For a long time, the conversation around rental housing affordability in Canada has focused on the population as a whole, but the numbers clearly show several key, vulnerable groups are bearing the brunt of this crisis," said Jeff Morrison, executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association. "We very much hope that those seeking office in this election and Canadian voters will use this opportunity to push for more immediate and substantial action on this critical issue."
The index uses data from the 2016 long-form census and examines rental housing affordability and overcrowding of various demographic groups for over 800 municipalities and regions across Canada, as well as all 338 federal electoral districts
Willowdale, in Toronto, takes the title as the federal riding with the highest proportion of renter households dealing with a crisis level of spending on rent.nearly two-thirds (59 per cent) of all renter households spend 30 per cent or more of their income on housing, while 39 per cent allocate ha.lf or more In B.C., the ridings of Vancouver Quadra and Richmond Centre are the most unaffordable in that province
