Designing a portable housing benefit
Housing affordability is a critical issue with thousands of individuals and families across Ontario and Canada experiencing homelessness or struggling to pay rent. Portable housing benefits offer a timely and responsive solution to the challenges of housing affordability by providing direct financial assistance to low-income renters.
Blueprint conducted research to identify options for an optimal portable housing benefit design that could effectively alleviate housing need for low-income individuals and families. In 2017, in collaboration with housing expert Marion Steele, we analyzed options for designing a provincial housing benefit that would maximize effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing unintended consequences.
By including data from several sources, we were able to model the benefit’s impact for individuals and families in different circumstances. This work helped inform the proposed benefit design by illustrating potential outcomes, costs, and trade-offs for different design parameters.
We presented the results of our work to the Ontario Income Security Working Groups in the spring of 2017. In their final report, Income Security: A Roadmap for Change, they recommended that the Ontario government introduce a portable housing benefit to assist all low-income people with the cost of housing.
Our team and partners live and work on the traditional territory of many Indigenous people across Turtle Island. Blueprint’s home office is situated in the area known as Tkaronto, an area that has been caretaken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat for thousands of years. We strive to meaningfully incorporate principles of reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in our day-to-day work, as is our collective responsibility as treaty people, which requires ongoing reflection and collective action.
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