Missing: $330 Million in Federal Affordable Housing Funds

The Ontario government can’t account for one-third of a billion in federal housing funding – that’s enough money to build more than 5,500 new homes across the province.

The Ontario Auditor-General, in his annual report released December 7, reports that the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing cannot explain whether the federal funds were actually spent on housing. A total of $198 million was identified as “provincial constraint”, but it’s not clear what that means.

“It’s astonishing that at a time when affordable housing waiting lists have grown to 137,000 households across the province, the ministry of housing seems to have ‘lost’ $330 million,” says Michael Shapcott, Co-Chair of the Housing Network of Ontario and Director of Affordable Housing at the Wellesley Institute. “Every penny of that money should be invested in healthy and affordable homes, not hidden somewhere in the provincial accounts.”

Learn more about the Housing Network of Ontario

Read more about affordable housing in Ontario at the Wellesley Institute

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