
The following problem is a conundrum for all social housing suppliers virtually everywhere in the world. We’re going to examine that problem in Canada’s Yukon Territory, where the homeless numbers, critical as they are in a northern community, don’t quite fry the brain like a big city’s social housing needs.
So let’s begin first with Toronto, Ontario’s waiting list for social housing. We’ll saw off the waiting list at a nice simple number: 80,000 households, and use it to consider someone who is on that list. We need to be aware that some new social housing is being built, while some existing housing is being condemned as past its useful life or is off-stream for refurbishment.
So, a spot becomes available. Who is at the top of the list, based on what criteria, and who gets the congratulatory call, just in case, for some reason, it’s somebody different?
On second thoughts, do we really want to wallow with poverty-stricken people in the multiple thousands who are waiting for housing that, according to current plans, may not be built for decades, possibly even centuries?
Since the Yukon has just changed their approach to allocating social housing, why not step north to consider the pros and cons of who wins affordable housing, according to differing methods of ‘who deserves the most.’
In the Yukon the ‘old’ points system was much maligned until a new system using ‘streams’ rather than ‘points’ was announced. At first there was great hopefulness. Little time passed considering the brave new ‘streams’ system, before complaints started flying thick and fast.
Any jurisdictions considering switching methods of wait-listing, for fairness or any other reason, may find the following article useful. Read more at the CBC: Yukon’s new social housing policy works against the most vulnerable, critics say