Toronto -- Rental housing to meet the needs of singles, seniors and people with special needs is not really sufficent in most urban areas of Ontario.

Despite having higher apartment vacancy rates and lower interest rates for home ownership, affordable rental housing continues to be in short supply, according to the Where's Home? A Picture of Housing Needs in Ontario (2005), a report produced by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association and the Co-operative Housing Federation, Ontario Region.

The report indicates that more than 500,000 families in the province cannot afford the rental housing currently available on the market despite rising vacancy rates. Rents on approximately 75% of all rental units in Ontario have increased steadily well above the rate of inflation over the past decade. Rent takes up a greater share of household expenditures, "resulting in housing-driven poverty."

Rents in the past 10 years increased at rates higher than the rate of inflation in most places by more than:

* 50% in Barric and Toronto,

* 30% in Hamilton and Kitchener;

* 20% in Durham Region and Kitchener.

The production of new rental housing is in decline. In 2004, only 3,600 new rental units were built, compared to an annual average of more than 12,500 between 1990 and 1994.

At the same time conversions to condominiums and demolitions have produced a net loss of more than 16,000 rental housing units, the problems caused by conversions and demolitions is especially severe in London, Ottawa and Peel Regions.

The report calls for a larger inventory of permanently affordable non-profit housing that would offer low-income and special needs households a measure of protection from volatile changes in the housing market, as vacancy rates, interest rates and rents fluctuate from year to year.

The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association and the Co-operative Housing Federation, Ontario Region call on the federal and provincial governments to take a "balanced approach" to the creation of more affordable housing, including: permanently affordable non-profit and co-op housing, more private sector rental, renovation of existing social housing and rent supplements for low income and special housing needs household where vacant units are available. 416-927-9144