Expiring rental subsidies leaves city scrambling to find affordable solution for tenants

Over the next three years, 551 households in Windsor-Essex will need to find another way to pay rent as some government-funded subsidy programs are set to expire — the earliest ending in March. 

The expiry of the Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance programs has the city scrambling to find alternatives for residents, according to a City of Windsor report that is headed to the Community Services and Parks standing committee Wednesday.

The report notes that the ending of these programs could increase affordable housing demand, evictions and homelessness in a region where the affordable housing wait list has more than 5,000 people. It's also coming at a time when many have lost work due to the pandemic and the provincial government has lifted a rent freeze that was in place since COVID-19 began. 

"We already have a homelessness issue right across the country. We know that there aren't enough affordable places in the country for people to live," said Joyce Zuk, executive director of Family Services Windsor-Essex. 

"The expiration of the rent supplement is an extra layer on top of that that is just going to exacerbate an already significant problem." 

She said rent supplements often provide someone with a portion of their rent, typically between $400 and $500 each month. 

By the end of March, two programs that in total receive $490,000 in annual funding will expire for at least 88 households.

These programs include the Investment in Affordable Housing and the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative, both of which serve people who are experiencing homelessness, are in crisis, have disabilities, are seniors or survivors of domestic abuse. 

The city said it is currently trying to help people apply for other subsidy programs, such as the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit, the Windsor-Essex Housing Benefit or Rent-Geared-to-Income units. 

But these benefits may have different eligibility criteria and might offer a supplement that varies from what someone was previously receiving, the city said. 

Family Services Windsor-Essex is one of multiple service providers working to shuffle people into other programs this month. 

"Hopefully the worst case [scenario] means that they have to move, which is something that we never want to see. It's taking stability away from people," Zuk said. 

On top of this concern, Zuk said the task of moving people takes up the time of staff who could be getting people into housing, meaning it could lengthen the amount of time someone is in a shelter. 

In 2020, the city created a Windsor-Essex Housing Benefit (WEHB) program and agreed to commit $250,000 for three years. Last year, the city said it paused this program so that it could use the money to help transition the households whose rent supplements expire in March.