New data shows 72% jump in homelessness among Ontario’s social assistance recipients

Ontario’s own records show the province’s social assistance system is fuelling the homelessness crisis, according to new data obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Maytree’s latest policy brief, “Designed to fail: How Ontario’s income security policies create and perpetuate homelessness,” highlights how inadequate rates and punitive shelter benefit rules are driving people onto the streets. 

As of July 2025, more than 30,000 people receiving Ontario Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits were experiencing homelessness – a 72 per cent increase since July 2019.

“Far from stabilizing lives and helping people escape poverty, reliance on social assistance is increasingly a homelessness sentence,” said Lena Balata, report author and Maytree’s senior policy advisor. “When rates can’t even cover the cost of renting a room, homelessness isn’t a personal failing – it’s a predictable policy failure.”

The data reveals a widening gap between benefits and housing costs. Between 2019 and 2024, OW monthly benefits for a single person remained frozen at $733 while the average cost to rent a room in Toronto climbed from $730 to $860. The maximum shelter benefit was just $390 – and it’s only paid to recipients who can prove they spend money on housing, meaning unhoused people receive nothing. 

The number of people who have been on OW for more than one year and are now unhoused has more than doubled, climbing from 4,245 in July 2019 to 10,010 in July 2025 – a 136 per cent increase.

The situation is particularly dire for equity-seeking groups. Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and people with disabilities are more likely to rely on social assistance and more vulnerable to homelessness when benefits fall short. As a result, inadequate benefit levels are reinforcing existing inequities and driving homelessness along the lines of race, Indigeneity, and disability. 

“When we asked for any briefing materials that explore the relationship between social assistance and rising homelessness, the ministry told us no records exist,” said Balata. “The government isn’t even analyzing how its own policies are creating homelessness.”

The brief calls on the Ontario government to:

• Protect human rights by progressively realizing the right to adequate housing.
• Address the systemic causes of poverty, particularly for Indigenous, racialized, and disabled communities.
• Ensure income supports are adequate to afford housing.
• End shelter benefit clawbacks that penalize unhoused recipients.
• Expand deeply affordable and supportive housing.
• Confront systemic discrimination in housing and employment.

The full policy brief, FOI data, and graphics are available at: https://maytree.com/publications/designed-to-fail-how-ontarios-income-security-policies-create-and-perpetuate-homelessness/