2025 City Budget Deputation

YWCA Toronto
Oral Presentation to the City of Toronto's Budget Committee
January 22, 2025

Good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sami Pritchard and I am the Director of Advocacy and Communications at YWCA Toronto, the city’s largest multi-service organization serving women, girls and gender diverse individuals.

From Scarborough to Etobicoke, over 13,000 people rely on our services to escape gender-based violence, find safe and affordable housing, access emergency shelter, and secure employment. Many of these programs are funded by the City, and we want to acknowledge our sincere appreciation for this valuable partnership.

Through our services, our organization works on the frontlines of addressing Toronto’s growing socio-economic crises. As we confront Toronto’s designation as the child poverty capital of Canada, record breaking food bank usage, an epidemic of intimate partner violence and a housing crisis, we must recognize that women, children, and gender diverse people are disproportionately affected. The multiple crises we are experiencing demand not just immediate relief, but long-term, systemic solutions and investments that address the root causes of poverty, violence and inequality.

While we appreciate the investments to support our communities, we must acknowledge that for over a decade, Toronto has faced austerity budgets, leaving critical services underfunded. The need for increased support is urgent and the 2025 budget must prioritize community-led, harm-reduction approaches to best address the complex needs of our communities.

The city has reported an increase in families with children seeking emergency shelter, and as shelter operators, we are seeing this demand in real time. Shelter services, including our two gender-based violence shelters and two emergency shelters have long been operating at maximum capacity. As we navigate a growing epidemic of gender-based and intimate partner violence, it is critical that organizations such as ours are able to offer a safe refuge when needed most. We are glad to see the proposal to increase shelter beds, however we are confident that it is not nearly enough to meet the growing need.

Due to the ongoing shortage of affordable and permanent housing, many people are staying in our shelters for longer periods of time. And, with a social housing waitlist of over 100 thousand people, we do not see this changing anytime soon.

As the city’s largest gendered housing provider, we see firsthand the profound impacts of the lack of access to safe, affordable, and accessible housing. While we acknowledge the proposed investments in tenant support and eviction prevention programs, such as the Rent Bank Program and Eviction Prevention in the Community Program (EPIC), the reality is that 50% of Torontonians are renters, and as such, the need for expanded support remains critical. Given the scale of the housing crisis, greater investments in these city-supported housing programs to help manage the rising cost of living, ensure affordable housing, and prevent evictions are critical, especially as more and more families and individuals struggle to maintain stable housing.

We also face a staffing crisis in shelters and child care. City-funded shelters are unable to pay staff the same wages as city-run shelters leading to high turnover, which disproportionately affects women—who make up the majority of shelter staff. Similarly, our child care workers—most of whom are women—are paid far below their counterparts at city child care centers, which only exacerbates the strain on this essential sector. This is inequitable and it is imperative that we address this pay disparity to ensure the recruitment and retention of the staff who provide vital services to women and children in our city.

Finally, we are still waiting for a fully funded gender equity strategy that would outline clear actions to address the unique challenges women and gender diverse individuals face. It is critical that strategies such as this and the poverty reduction strategy be a priority in the upcoming budget, with measurable actions and adequate funding. During a troubling regression of civil rights, including those of Indigenous and racialized communities, women, immigrants and newcomers, and 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, action plans created to support these communities cannot remain an afterthought and must be prioritized.

I want to emphasize that none of the aforementioned challenges can be solved without robust collaboration between all three levels of government. We support the City’s efforts to build relationships with provincial and federal governments, but we also need the City to prioritize partnerships with community-based organizations that have the expertise and experience necessary to address these issues effectively.

Community organizations are doing everything we can to meet the growing demands of our communities, but we cannot do this work with limited resources. We need to see increased, stable and equitable funding to support our efforts. We cannot continue to rely on underfunded systems that are stretched beyond capacity.

In conclusion, we urge you to make investments that will truly make a difference for those most in need, explore and support new and revised revenue tools such as the commercial parking levy and know that we will continue to advocate alongside you to see increased support from our provincial and federal governments.

Thank you very much for your time.

---

Sami Pritchard is the Director of Advocacy and Communications at YWCA Toronto