Get a personalized list of available benefits, including help with child care, employment, housing and living expenses.
Rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing is subsidized housing. Learn more about the RGI subsidy.
If you have a support worker, they may be able to help you find housing; or you can contact a Housing Help Centre directly.
The Housing Stabilization Fund (HSF) provides money for emergency housing needs to people receiving financial assistance through Ontario Works or income support through the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) in the city of Toronto. HSF is intended to prevent homelessness and help obtain and retain housing.
The Toronto Rent Bank provides interest-free loans to Toronto residents who are behind in their rent or need to move to more suitable housing. Residents may be eligible for an interest-free rental arrears or rental deposit loan if they:
Loan repayments can be deferred for up to 12 months.
Please call 416-397-RENT (7368) for more information on how to apply. Operating hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Outside of operating hours, callers may leave a message and a representative will call back.
*Residents in receipt of social assistance should contact their Ontario Works or ODSP office as they may qualify for the Housing Stabilization Fund.
The Tenant Defence Fund is a City of Toronto program that helps tenants maintain affordable rental housing. The Fund supports a Tenant Support Grant Program and a Tenant Outreach and Organizing Program.
For help to prepare an application, contact the FMTA (Federation of Metro Tenants Associations) Outreach Team at 416-413-9442.
The Tenant Support Grant Program provides grants to tenant groups wishing to challenge their landlord’s actions on any of these fronts:
The Tenant Support Grant Program also provides grants to tenant groups wishing to make a tenant application about maintenance to the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Other applications may be determined on a case-by-case basis. The grants cover the cost of hiring legal or technical professionals to help tenant groups prepare for the challenge and represent them at legal proceedings.
The Outreach and Organizing Program helps tenant groups organize and prepare for hearings at the Landlord and Tenant Board for rent increase disputes, and/or maintenance issues, or at the Ontario Municipal Board for demolitions and condo conversion matters. The program also helps tenants with other matters as needed. The FMTA is contracted by the City to provide these outreach and organizing services.
To qualify for a grant, a minimum number of tenants must be affected by the landlord’s AGI, demolition or condo conversion application, or by the maintenance issue. Affected tenants need to sign the tenants’ petition in the grant application form. If there are fewer than 100 units in your complex, at least 25 per cent of the affected tenants must sign the petition. If there are 100 or more units, at least 25 per cent must sign, to a maximum of 30 affected units.
Those who sign the petition must rent at or below a specified rent for their unit. The reason for setting the qualifying rents is to help target the grants to buildings with affordable rents.
The qualifying rents for 2018 are:
Please note there are other eligibility criteria on the grant application forms.
City of Toronto
Shelter, Support & Housing Administration Division
55 John Street, Metro Hall, 6th Floor
Toronto ON M5V 3C6
Attention: Administrative Co-ordinator, Housing Stability Services
Phone: 416-397-0695
Support grants are only issued to groups of tenants living in private market housing. Individual tenants and those living in subsidized housing are not eligible. Tenants need to work with other tenants in the building as a group to apply for a grant. The City strongly encourages tenants to form a tenants’ association and set up a bank account to deposit any money they may receive from the grant in order to pay legal representatives and/or technical expert witnesses.
Tenant groups may receive up to $1,000 to cover the basic costs of disputing a landlord’s AGI application. Some groups may receive an additional grant up to $5,000 to cover costs of professional services (e.g., lawyer, engineer, accountant) for more complex cases. Groups may receive up to $10,000 for more complex legal issues such as launching an appeal to the Divisional Court on a Board Order concerning AGIs or requesting a judicial review of an AGI application. Groups who contest applications for demolitions or condo conversions before the Ontario Municipal Board may receive up to $15,000.
In addition, a complete application package should include:
The Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) allows residential tenants to reduce their rents when the rental buildings in which they live have had a property tax decrease between two consecutive years. Municipalities are required to send notices about the tax decrease and rent reduction to landlords of affected buildings by September 15 and to tenants by December 15.
Under the RTA, notices must be sent if the tax decrease is more than 2.49 per cent, and there are more than six rental residential units in a building (i.e., multi-residential rental properties). In 2001, Council adopted a policy that notices must also be sent to buildings with six or fewer units (i.e., residential rental properties), to ensure that tenants in smaller rental buildings have the same opportunity as tenants in multi-unit buildings to automatically reduce their rents.
For more information, see rent reduction information under Property tax.
People on Ontario Works may receive a one-time payment of up to $50 to reimburse the cost of items such as:
To be eligible, you must receive Ontario Works and:
To apply for this one-time payment, please speak to your Ontario Works caseworker. You will need to provide proof that you pay for the specific utility and provide receipts for the energy conservation item(s). This benefit is only paid as a reimbursement.
High utility bills may put low income homeowners and tenants at risk. The programs listed below may be able to provide financial help. For more details on eligibility and applying contact the program directly.