Is There A Homelessness Crisis In Brampton?
Published August 22, 2019 at 5:06 pm
It’s no news that Brampton residents are finding it harder to buy a house or rent an apartment.
It’s no news that Brampton residents are finding it harder to buy a house or rent an apartment.
Over the past few years, the growing gap between wages and shelter costs has been dominating headlines and prompting serious discussions at all levels of government.
Recently, Brampton placed 11th of 37 cities listed for the average rent of a one-bedroom unit at $1,728 and average monthly rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,863.
A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives indicates that minimum wage earners (such as Ontario residents who earn $14 an hour) absolutely cannot afford apartments in Canada’s major cities—Brampton included. The study stated that the Brampton East rental wage is $29.97 an hour, which means a full-time minimum-wage worker would need to clock around 86 hours a week to afford their rent. The Brampton West rental wage is $27.40 an hour, which means a full-time minimum-wage worker would need to clock around 78 hours a week to afford their rent.
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Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) also reported that the market is scorching in Brampton with a total of 932 homes sold, a 20.8 per cent year-over-year improvement. A flat influx of new supply – new listings fell 0.8 per cent to a total of 1,491 – has led to a price surge of 6.9 per cent to an average of $744,590.
So, has this unaffordability in the housing market led to a homelessness crisis?
According to The Homeless Hub and Statistics Canada, there are 922 homeless people in Peel, but not many shelters and affordable housing in Brampton to accommodate them.
About 50 per cent of homeless individuals are staying in emergency and domestic violence shelters, while 27 per cent is staying in transitional housing, 14 per cent of people are staying at someone’s house, and four per cent are staying in public spaces.
However, there is only one male emergency shelter, one youth emergency shelter, one male transitional housing and one violence against women shelter in Brampton. To put it simply, there is a lack of different types of shelters in the city.
Here’s a look at Brampton’s shelters:
According to The Housing Hub, around 32 per cent of homeless people in Peel face chronic homelessness, while 24 per cent have episodic homelessness. Many people state that the affordability of housing plays an important factor in why they are homeless.
There are about 7,000 subsidized units and 11,887 households that receive housing subsidy in the Peel Region. While around 13,000 households are on a centralized waitlist for a subsidized home. These households will wait an average of six years to get a subsidized unit.
With all this information, it is easy to say that Brampton and the Peel Region is on the verge of a homelessness crisis if not, it is already in a crisis.
Do you think there is homelessness crisis in Brampton?
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