Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Poor back of line for housing

Poor back of line for housing

The study says that it would take 16 years to find hous­ing for everyone in the GTA if abuse victims were added to the chronological list.
 
If the long wait lists for social housing across the province weren’t proof enough, a new report shows that the chronological system used to place families in homes is failing the poor.

Families living in poverty are being bumped down on the first-come-first-served municipal lists by families escaping domestic abuse, who leapfrog to the front of the line because of a provincial policy that gives them priority.


According to a new study, 70 per cent of applicants give up when they can’t find housing within four years and drop off the list.


The study, by a task force of social housing advocate groups and municipalities, shows that annually, fewer than half of the subsidized units in the GTA go to the low-income residents. On average, their names will languish on wait lists for a minimum of five years before getting a unit.


Battered families, who represent only 4 percent of social housing applicants, are getting 43 percent of the units, most of them within six months.

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