Changes could be coming to who gets priority for social housing in London

More than 1,500 households are languishing on a wait list for social housing, despite being labelled with an "urgent" status that is supposed to speed up their ability to find a place they can afford to live, a city report being discussed by politicians on Monday shows. 

Those with urgent status are waiting for about three years to be placed in social housing, while those on the regular wait list — which numbers more than 5,000 households — wait for an average of five years to be given a place in social housing. 

It's a system that's not working for anyone, said Coun. Sam Trosow, one of the politicians on the community and protective services committee that will be looking at a proposal to rejig how people are prioritized in the future. 

"I don't think the concept of rent-geared-to-income is broken, but I do think how it's being administered is broken," Trosow said. "Everyone is unhappy because even if you get placed in a building, the conditions in there are very poor and there are all sorts of problems."

Now city staff are asking to do away with the 'urgent' status they created in 2005 — a designation given to people who are disabled, whose safety is at risk or who are homeless — partly because it gives people a false sense that they'll get placed quickly, and also because other services are in place, or will be in place, to help them, said Craig Cooper, the city's director of housing stability services. 

"We're creating more options and more pathways for folks to be appropriately supported," he said. "There are other resources available to help them resolve some of their challenges in a more efficient manner, so having them sit on a wait list with no real expectation that they're going to be able to get housing in a short period of time just didn't seem to make sense for us anymore." 

Community and health agencies that work with people waiting to get placed in social housing told city officials through a survey that the current system is not meeting the needs of the people they serve. Among the findings: 

• 60 per cent didn't think being put in the "urgent" stream was beneficial. 
• 75 per cent said they the housing application process didn't help people get matched with the supports they needed. 
• 83 per cent of the 'urgent' clients were classified as homeless, which means those living in condemned housing, households whose child custody depends on finding adequate housing, and those without a permanent residence. 
• 44 per cent said their clients had a poor experience with social housing. 

London Middlesex Housing Corporation is the largest provider of rent-geared-to-income housing, with more than 3,200 units. The remaining 3,400 are managed by other, smaller social housing providers. 

Survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence get more priority for housing than the 'urgent' status cases. That's legislated by the province, Cooper said. 

The proposal going to politicians would see the 'urgent' status be discontinued for new applicants not yet on the wait list, and instead priority given to people who are 'overhoused,' meaning a single person living in a two-bedroom unit or a couple living in a four-bedroom townhouse. 

"We're working to have them move to a more appropriate unit for their household size," Cooper said. That would free up other units, he said. Right now, there are only about 20 to 30 vacancies a month, which doesn't allow for people to get into a unit that's right for them. 

"It's a system in transformation right now," he said. "I think we've been trying to rely on a system that isn't designed to deal with people's acute needs."

Those people are now being helped by the coordinated access team, which tries to match people with the right support at the the right time, connecting them with financial and social services. They're also getting money from a portable benefit program, which allows the city to give emergency funds to people so they don't lose their housing.