Reports on Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis, Water and Wastewater Utility Feasibility
AMO Launches Groundbreaking Homelessness Study
Today the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) released a comprehensive report titled “Municipalities Under Pressure: The Growing Human and Financial Cost of Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis” that reveals the unprecedented and growing toll of homelessness on individuals, families, communities, and governments. It outlines the risk of inaction and shows there is a reasonable path forward.
The study was conducted by HelpSeeker Technologies, in partnership with AMO, the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association (OMSSA) and the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association (NOSDA).
The study’s findings indicate that Ontario is at a tipping point in its homelessness crisis. More than 80,000 Ontarians were known to be homeless in 2024, a number that has grown by more than 25 per cent since 2022. Without significant intervention, homelessness in Ontario could double in the next decade, and reach nearly 300,000 people in an economic downturn. The crisis stems from decades of underinvestment in deeply affordable housing, income support and mental health and addictions treatment, combined with escalating economic pressures on communities.
The report proposes a fundamentally new approach that focuses on long-term housing solutions over temporary emergency measures and enforcement. AMO urges provincial and federal governments to take significant, long-term action on affordable housing, mental health and addictions services, and income supports to fix homelessness and improve communities’ economic foundations and quality of life.
You can find a communications toolkit, including AMO’s backgrounder, a customizable news release, and social media cards on the AMO website.
Water and Wastewater Utility Feasibility Study
On January 8, AMO’s business services arm (LAS) released a feasibility study that explores the opportunity and considerations for managing water and wastewater under a municipally-led Municipal Services Corporation. This work was supported by an expert panel and will be featured in the upcoming 2025 ROMA Conference programming in late January.
The study complements the AMO-MFOA water and wastewater backgrounder, which provided a fact-base on the opportunities and challenges of this model. AMO believes that Municipal Service Corporations can be a valuable organizational and governance tool, particularly for small-to-medium-sized municipalities lacking the tax base to support costly infrastructure renewal and expansion. For these communities, Municipal Service Corporations offer a potentially helpful mechanism to increase administrative and technical capacity and financial sustainability for water and wastewater infrastructure. However, it’s crucial that these corporations be planned openly, thoughtfully, and carefully under municipalities’ leadership.
