Housing Connections
Workshop
Content
1) What do we do?
2) Applying for Housing
3) How to Keep Application Alive
4) Making Housing Choices
5) Special Priorities
6) Adverse Decisions
7) How to Use Online Services
8) Housing Programs
9) Community Partners
What do we do?
• Assess eligibility for and manage the
central waiting list for subsidized
housing in Toronto
• Manage the Rent Supplement Program
in private-market buildings
• Manage various housing programs
• Following City rules and Ontario laws
Social Housing Reform Act, 2000
Ontario
We apply SHRA rules to:
• Waiting list administration
• Eligibility
• Special priority victims of abuse
• Review process for adverse decisions – opportunity
for applicant to provide further info on their case
and a right to an Internal Review of the process
Applicants on the waiting list
As of December 31, 2010:
Total number of people on the central
waiting list: 142,555
Total Household Applications:
76,549
How long is the wait?
Special Priority
Bachelor
12-18 months
1-5 years
One-bedroom
7-10 years
Two-bedroom
5-10 years
Three-to-four-bedroom
10-12 years
Five-bedroom
4-6 years
Rent-geared-to-income
• Rent is 30 per cent of gross
household income; goes up or
down depending on income
• 70,000 social housing units located
across the city in various social
housing buildings
• Choose from housing listings
Applying for Housing
How to fill out an application
Application
• Complete an application online at
www.housingconnections.ca
• Download an application form and instructions
(English or French) from www.housingconnections.ca
• Pick up and get help with an application at one of Housing
Connections’ Community Partners located across the city
• Fill out an application at our Resource Centre at 176 Elm
Street
• Call and request an application
Filling out your application
• Household information
• Detail of arrears
• Alternate contacts
• Income
• Housing choices
• Declaration
• Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
*Must be signed by applicant, and all household members 16 years of
age or older
Waiting list eligibility
•
All household members must have legal status in Canada
(Canadian citizenship, landed immigrant status, refugee
status or claimant) See our website.
•
Must be 16 years of age or older to apply
•
No enforceable deportation, departure or exclusion order
against any household members
•
No household member can owe arrears to a social housing
provider in Ontario (unless there is an up-to-date repayment
schedule in place)
•
No household member or former member has convictions of
RGI fraud or misrepresentation
Checklist
Everyone must have status in Canada – proof of
Canadian status for all household members
If you owe arrears, provide a copy of arrears repayment
agreement signed by housing provider
If any of your children are in the custody of the
Children’s Aid Society, provide a letter from the CAS
If you requested an additional bedroom because of a legal custody
agreement or visiting rights, provide a copy of the agreement
If you requested an additional bedroom for disability,
provide proof of disability
Incomplete
applications
• The applicants are sent a letter outlining what is
missing to complete the application
• The date of application is the date that the
completed application is received with Canadian
status documentation for each household
member
What happens after
you apply?
• An acknowledgement letter is mailed to you
when we have received your application telling
you whether you are eligible
• Another letter will be mailed with a personal
identification number (P.I.N.) so that you can use
the website and the automated telephone system
to make changes to your application
How to Keep Your
Application Alive
The applicant’s
responsibilities
Inform Housing Connections whenever
there is a change in:
• name, address, phone number and/or designated
contact person
• income or assets
• health or special needs
• household composition
• housing choices
Keep your
application alive!
• Update information once a year to keep
application on the waiting list
• If there has been no activity on a file for 12 months, a letter
is sent to the last known address asking the applicant to
make contact to confirm interest
• If the mail is returned, or if there is no response, every
effort is made to contact the applicant or designated
contact person by phone, before the file becomes ‘inactive’
Full Update Package
• Sent to all applicants on waiting list to ensure
application information is up to date
• If this package is not completed and returned
within 30 days, attempts are made to contact
the applicant by letter or phone
Inactive applications
• Applications can remain ‘inactive’ for two years
• If there is no contact by the end of the ‘inactive’ period,
the file is automatically cancelled
• If the applicant has been identified as ‘homeless,’
inactive status could remain for up to five years before
being cancelled
• Once a file is cancelled, the applicant will have to start
all over again with a new application at the end of the
waiting list
Occupancy Standards
• Spouses/partners share a bedroom and can
request to share a bachelor unit
• Two children of the same sex share a bedroom
regardless of age (room must be at least 4 sq. metres per
person)
• Children of the opposite sex are given separate
bedrooms (unless the applicant submits a request to
have the children share a bedroom)
• Parent can request to share a bedroom with their
dependent child
How to make
housing choices
To select or update housing choices,
applicants with a P.I.N. can:
• Go to www.housingconnections.ca for the
interactive Housing Listings that show how many
people are waiting for a unit and the application
date currently being housed
• Use the automated telephone system
Housing Listings online
New! Search by
zone, unit size,
building type, etc.
Rent Supplement
• Tenant pays rent tied to 30 per cent of gross household
income; Housing Connections pays the landlord the
difference between rental rate and what the tenant pays
• About 3,000 units
located in various
private market
buildings
• Choose zones
from map of
Rent Supplement
Housing Zones
Housing Choice Date
The date you add a housing choice to your
application is the housing choice date for
most buildings.
Toronto Community Housing has many locations. It
uses the first date you added one of their buildings
to your application for any buildings added later.
Housing Choice Dates
You will get a new Housing Choice Date for each housing choice you
add to your list.
Housing Offers
• offers are made directly by the housing provider
• maximum of three refusals of housing offers
before being removed from the waiting list
• applicants should not accept a housing offer with
the expectation of transferring later
Priorities
• Waiting list works on a first-come, first-
served basis
• Exception to this rule is the special priorities
designated in provincial law and in city
guidelines
Priorities in Toronto
1) Victims of domestic abuse
2) Terminally Ill
3) Over housed
In addition to these priorities, housing providers
must offer one-of-every-seven vacancies to the
following households:
– Homeless/newcomers who are homeless
– Separated families with a child in care of Children’s Aid
Society
– Youth who are 16 years old at the time of applying
Special Priority Household
Category
Applicants who:
• are living with or have lived with their abuser and intend
to live permanently separated from the abuser
• are at least 16 years of age
• apply within 12 months of living with their abuser
• provide proof that they were living with the abuser and
demonstrate that they have been subject to abuse
Special Priority
Household Category
Application
• Verification that the applicant is living with or has
lived with their abuser
• A completed and signed Confirmation of Abuse form
• Referral letter from an eligible professional that
outlines one or more incidents of abuse
• A completed and signed Declaration of Abuse
Terminally Ill Medical Priority
• Applicant with a life expectancy of two years or
less (must be verified by doctor)
• Local priority in Toronto – housing providers
have the option to not acknowledge this local
priority
Over housed households
If the unit a tenant occupies is larger than what
they are eligible for, they are considered ‘over
housed’. A tenant who is over housed must move
to a smaller unit.
(Those who are considered over housed are
required to list at least five housing choices)
Adverse Decision:
Opportunity to provide more information
• When an adverse decision is made, the applicant is
notified and invited to provide more information
within 30 days
• If new information is submitted, it is reviewed by a
supervisor
• If the adverse decision is upheld, the applicant is
told about their right to request an Internal Review
What is an Internal
Review?
• SHRA requirement
• review of process - not an appeal
• panellists are trained community stakeholders
Scope of Internal Reviews
• panel reviews the processes and decisions
• panel doesn’t rule on fairness of policy
• decision can’t be influenced by new information
• processes cover the following:
– general eligibility
– dates
– number of bedrooms requested
– number of offers refused
– annual rent calculation
– request for transfer within Rent Supplement
– loss of subsidy within Rent Supplement
– eligibility for Special Priority Household Category
– eligibility for priority for the terminally ill
Online services
With an application number and personal
identification number (P.I.N.) applicants can make a
password to:
• view and update application information
• view and print summary of application and housing choices
• view ‘Housing Up To’ dates on the first-come, first-served
waiting list
• reply to letters asking for confirmation of interest in being on
waiting list or requesting an information update
Getting started
Log on to www.housingconnections.ca and select
Application Update from left menu or Applicants tab
Pop-up Blocker Settings
You will need to set your
browser to allow pop-ups
from
www.housingconnections.ca,
since many sections in My
Application use pop-ups.
To adjust these settings go to
your internet browser under
Tools and then Pop-up Blocker.
New Users
Click on New users, orange button if it is your first time using
Application Update.
Registered Users
Click on the Registered Users, green button if you already
have an application number and password.
How to register
Make sure you click on Register and the Register for Web Access
box will display.
.
How to register
Enter application and P.I.N. numbers and then click Verify.
How to register
• Select a password with
6 - 20 characters and
one alpha character,
confirm password
• Click on arrow to
select a security
question
• Enter security answer
(may be up to 80
characters long)
• Click Submit
Applicants should keep this info private, and store for future reference.
Applicant Login
If an applicant doesn’t know their number, they may request their
application number by clicking click here.
Applicant Login
• Enter Application Number
• Enter Password
• Click Login
My Application
Screen options are displayed in left menu, click on desired
menu option.
Housing Choices
Screen shows a listing of the applicant’s housing choices. Housing
Choices can be added or deleted individually or by zone.
This is a scrollable screen. Drag the scroll bar up or down to view
choices not shown in the screen view.
Save your changes and logout
1. Make sure you save all your changes
2. Logout!
1
2
Translating web info
New! Use Google Translator
on most pages of our website
to translate web info in just
seconds
While you wait:
Being on the waiting list for subsidized housing means you may be eligible for
other housing options. Some recent programs were designed to help
applicants on the waiting list afford their rent while they wait:
• Short Term Rent Support Program
– $180-$350 allowance a month to help pay rent where they currently live
or in a new location will help up to over 4,000 households while they
keep their place on the waiting list
– when the program ends, the tenant can stay in their unit if they are able
to pay the rent without the allowance
• Canada-Ontario-Toronto Housing Allowance Program
– allowance of up to $550 a month (now full) helps 1000 households
afford their rent and keep their place on the waiting list
– participants were required to move to a landlord participating in the
program
Other housing programs:
At Home/Chez Soi Research Project
• research project funded by Mental Health Commission of
Canada (MHCC)
• applicants can be referred to the program from community
agencies
• participants selected through research team and assigned
to service agency providing support (COTA, TNSS or
Across Boundaries)
• $600 a month housing allowance is provided to make
housing more affordable
• project ends March 31, 2013
Community Partners
Community agencies provide services in
a variety of languages and help applicants with
their housing search and application process.
Community Partners:
• have access to the waiting list database;
• know Housing Connections policies and
procedures; and,
• help clients apply for housing and maintain
their applications.
Community Partners
Agincourt Community Services Association
Seaton House
Albion Neighbourhood Services – North
Streets to Homes
AWIC Community and Social Services
St. Stephen’s Community House
Birkdale Residence
Toronto Christian Resource Centre
Bloor Info and Life Skills Centre
West Hill Community Services
B’Nai Brith Canada
Woodgreen Community Centre
Community Action Resource Centre
York Housing Help Centre
Community Centre 55
West Toronto Housing Help Service
COSTI
Women’s Residence
East York Housing Help
Fred Victor Centre
Etobicoke Housing Help Centre South
Catholic Crosscultural Services
Family Residence Shelter
Midaynta Community Services
Flemingdon Neighbourhood Services
Mid-Toronto Community Services
Native Men’s Residence
The Redwood
Neighbourhood Link/Senior Link
The Assessment and Referral Centre
Polycultural Immigrant & Community Services South Asian Women’s Centre
Robertson House
The Tamil Eelam Society of Canada
Scarborough Housing Help Centre
Elizabeth Fry Society of Toronto
Homeward
Sistering
Many ways to keep in touch
• Visit our website to apply online or to update an application
at www.housingconnections.ca
Email at ask@housingconnections.ca
Call our automated telephone system 24/7 at
416-981-6111 or call during regular business hours to
speak to an agent
Fax at 416-981-6112
• Visit our Resource Centre at 176 Elm Street
• To request an off-site workshop:
Email us at outreach@housingconnections.ca
Many ways to keep in touch
Rent Supplement Program
Phone: (416) 981-6160
Fax: (416) 981-6114
Email: housing.programs@housingconnections.ca
Housing Allowance Program
Phone: (416) 981-6128
Fax: (416) 981-6114
Email: housing.allowance@housingconnections.ca
Questions?