In the midst of a housing and shelter crisis, Toronto is sitting on $18 million meant for preventing homelessness, an anti-poverty group claims in a new report.
The report, “Toronto Robs from the Poor: The Misuse of the Housing Stabilization Fund,” contains a summary of financial information the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty says shows the city under-spent about $3.5 million from that fund each year, for three years, and placed the surplus money in the city’s general reserve fund.
The money in question is part of the city’s Housing Stabilization Fund, a fund used for rent support, moving costs, bug infestations and furniture, and provided to Toronto through the province’s Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative. Provincial rules dictate it must be spent within the year it was budgeted for, or risk being re-allocated by the province, the authors write.
An emailed statement from the city’s finance department Tuesday night said that any unspent funds transferred into general surplus was done in accordance with the city’s surplus management policy and the city has been “fully in compliance with provincial regulations” since the program was introduced.
The surplus, staff said, was “mainly attributed to a lower Ontario Works average monthly caseload.” The city has also augmented provincial funds to combat homelessness, they said.
OCAP based its conclusions on reports obtained through Freedom of Information requests and public financial documents to show what members contend is proof the city failed to spend and then sat on the money in the midst of a housing and homelessness crisis.
On top of the roughly $10 million OCAP says was placed in a reserve fund, the advocacy group also questioned how about $8 million, also surplus dollars, would be used for housing allowances for Toronto’s poorest residents. They also raised questions about how the city reports and collects financial information.
“Contrary to the position that the city lacks resources to tackle the shelter crisis, it in fact has access to $18 million sitting in reserves that could and should instead be spent on providing much needed respite to the homeless,” the authors write.
OCAP members A.J. Withers and Yogi Acharya released the report at a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday outside of Tory’s office and presented a copy to a senior staff member. They demanded that any available surplus funds be used immediately for homelessness prevention services, that the city release spending information to ensure accuracy and accountability and fund the creation of 1,000 new shelter beds.
On Monday, the city’s shelter system was at 96 per cent capacity, with women and youth shelters at 97 per cent, and men’s shelters at 96 per cent. Family shelters, not including motel beds made available to handle the overflow, were at capacity.
Tory, when asked about the report shortly after its release during a scrum at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, said his general understanding was while there has been “some slight under-spending in housing funding that has gone forward,” that was due in part to changes in how the program operates and who was eligible to receive the money.
Any money set aside for homelessness services has been “carefully taken care of” and some has been put into reserves, for when it is needed, he said.
Tory said he was confident “those funds have been entirely properly managed and that when they are needed to be accessed for housing allowances or anything else they will be accessed in a normal manner.”
Suggesting “an impropriety of any kind,” by public servants when it came to managing the money is unfair, he added.
The OCAP report included email correspondence between OCAP member Acharya and an employee with the city division charged with overseeing the fund. Acharya was told that any money not used in 2014 and 2015 and that was placed in reserve was “distributed in accordance” with the city’s surplus management policy.
The housing allowance, according to the city, is also being distributed according to city rules.
Patricia Anderson, with the city’s shelter, support and housing administration division told the Star that in 2013, $3.7 million in surplus funds was transferred from the Housing Stabilization Fund into a housing allowance reserve to provide a housing stability allowance for vulnerable tenants.
The creation of that fund and allowances was “a first step toward the goal of expanding housing allowance initiatives with a re-allocation of unutilized funds in the Housing Stabilization Fund” and fit within provincial guidelines on how the money was used, she said.
Allowances were given to 320 people over three years, with many receiving continued support, and 261 people currently receiving monthly funding of $400 each, she said. The next chunk of surplus money, about $3.8 million, is expected to be transferred into the fund this year, but has yet to be approved, she said.
“There are no discrepancies in financial reporting and provincial rules are followed,” she said in an email.
After the news conference, OCAP members walked through city hall to hand out copies of the report to councillors and left a stack with a staff member from Councillor Joe Mihevc’s office.
