CANADIANCCPA CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES MANITOBA Making Space for Change The Story of Manitoba’s Rent Assist Benefit By Josh Brandon and Jesse Hajer JU LY 2019 Making Space for Change: About the Authors: The Story of Manitoba’s Rent Assist Benefit Josh Brandon is a Community Animator at the Social isbn 978-1-77125-462-5 Planning Council of Winnipeg, co-editor of Poor Housing: A Silent Crisis and a Canadian Centre for JULY 2019 Policy Alternatives – Manitoba Research Associate. Jesse Hajer is a faculty member in the Department This report is available free of charge from the CCPA of Economics and Labour Studies program at the website at www.policyalternatives.ca. Printed University of Manitoba, and a Canadian Centre for copies may be ordered through the Manitoba Office Policy Alternatives – Manitoba Research Associate for a $10 fee. Acknowledgements Help us continue to offer our publications free online. The authors thank Kirsten Bernas, Shauna We make most of our publications available free MacKinnon, Molly McCracken, and Michael on our website. Making a donation or taking out a Mendelson for valuable review and commentary on membership will help us continue to provide people previous drafts. with access to our ideas and research free of charge. You can make a donation or become a supporter on-line at www.policyalternatives.ca. Or you can contact the Manitoba office at 204-927-3200 for more information. Suggested donation for this publication: $10 or what you can afford. Unit 301-583 Ellice Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3B 1Z7 tel 204-927-3200 fax 204-927-3201 email [email protected] Introduction In 2014 the Government of Manitoba announced ing eligible for zero benefits to being eligible for a new income-tested housing benefit, substan- up to $742 per month. By 2017, the amount al- tially increasing government assistance for low- lotted in the provincial budget for employment, income renters in the private market. Through income and rental assistance had increased by the Rent Assist program, families on social as- nearly $200 million to accommodate the higher sistance saw significant increases in their shelter rates and growing demand associated with in- benefit, with some families seeing increases of creased benefits. 69 percent over a two-year period, amounting The introduction of Manitoba’s Rent Assist to increases of approximately $150 to $300 per program, the particular form it took, and how month, depending on household size. The in- it evolved overtime, was a consequence of three crease in shelter benefits under Rent Assist led key factors. First, community advocates ran a to a large reduction in the gap between benefit broad-based and sustained multi-year campaign levels and average market rents for these house- to raise awareness of the inadequacy of the Em- holds. The gap for single individuals, for exam- ployment and Income Assistance (EIA) shelter ple, was reduced by more than half (see Table 1). allowance and the common practice of recipi- Rent Assist also drastically expanded the ents using their food allowance to pay for rent. number of renters eligible to receive housing This campaign not only gained support among benefits in the private market. Previous hous- all three political parties in the Manitoba leg- ing assistance programs outside of social as- islature, it also raised public awareness about sistance were limited to certain family types an issue that for several decades seemed off the and persons with a disability, with complicated radar for the broader general public. Secondly, eligibility distinctions depending on whether a the government in 2014 was broadly receptive household was receiving social assistance. Rent to addressing the social housing needs of low- Assist created a single program with unified el- income Manitobans and had been recognized igibly criteria based solely on income and fam- for its inclusive Community Economic Devel- ily size.1 Assistance for a single parent with two opment approach, although resistant to simply children not on social assistance went from be- increasing social assistance benefits. The third Making Space for change: The STory of ManiToba’S renT Assist benefiT 1 table 1 The Monthly Impact of Rent Assist on Shelter Benefits for Employment and Income Assistance Recipients, Private Market Renters 2013 2015 (Post Full Implementation Gap reduction, (Pre- Rent Assist) of Rent Assist 2013–2015 Total Shelter Average Total Shelter Average $ % Benefits Rent Benefits Rent Single adult 365 577 513 613 112 53 Single parent (two children) 430 967 742 1,043 236 44 Two parents (two children) 471 967 742 1,043 195 39 Source Brandon, Josh, Jesse Hajer and Michael Mendelson (2017) and CmHC Housing Market Information Portal. factor was the changing broader political and National Housing Benefit. What the experience economic context both internationally and lo- of Rent Assist teaches us is that if such signifi- cally, which created opportunities for bolder cant and costly improvements to social benefit policy change than was typical of a government programs are to occur, advocates may not be which had been in power since 1999. able to rely on sympathetic governments alone. The specific structure and uniqueness of the In the case of Rent Assist, overcoming a long Rent Assist program in Canada has been detailed standing aversion to increasing direct benefits elsewhere.2 In this paper we document some of for EIA recipients required the advocacy, mobi- the organizing history leading up to implemen- lization, and persistence of community based tation of the Rent Assist benefit, precursors and organizations working in partnership to raise provincial policy context from which the Rent awareness, build coalitions and demand change. Assist program emerged, as well as changes to It also required a new benefit that went equally the Rent Assist program since the election of a to the low-income working poor as to those in new government in 2016. Rent Assist has been the EIA program, so that it was not seen as an highlighted as a model for overcoming the de- increase in social assistance — but in some sense ficiencies of existing housing benefit programs seen as the opposite — creating an easier path for across Canada while addressing the needs of both people to leave assistance. social assistance recipients and low-income work- While similar efforts may not have succeeded ing households. Only time will tell if the model in all circumstances, the advocacy efforts local- is taken up by other provinces or the Federal ly in Manitoba, combined with a context of op- Government as it looks at improving housing portunity for meaningful reform, led to a radi- support programs through its National Hous- cal and novel improvement in housing benefits ing Strategy, which specifically calls for a new for many low-income Manitobans. 2 canadian centre for policy alternatives — MANITOBa Eroding Shelter Benefits and Community Advocacy for Change Rent Assist came about as a result of community as fast as incomes. As a result, rents became in- organizing to address a growing crisis of hous- creasingly unaffordable to a significant section of ing affordability in Manitoba. This crisis was -af the Manitoba renter population. According the fected by trends in declining availability of hous- 2011 National Household Survey, more than half ing supply, rising prices and stagnant incomes of of all renters in Manitoba fell below one or more low-income households, especially those reliant of the acceptable housing standards.4 on EIA. The contours of Manitoba’s rental hous- For households relying on EIA the housing ing crisis are familiar to housing and poverty crisis was dire. EIA shelter benefit rates were far activists across Canada. Rising population, low below average rents for all household types. A interest rates and reduced rental supply pushed 2012 Winnipeg Free Press report showed that up housing prices dramatically, nearly doubling even rents for rooming houses in the inner city in less than a generation. For example, in Win- of Winnipeg were higher than benefit levels for nipeg, as shown in Figure 1, the rent paid for an a single individual.5 Almost all recipients of EIA average studio apartment increased from $339 in in private market rental housing had actual rents 2000 to $634 in 2016 and a two-bedroom went higher than the posted rates, meaning many had up from $589 to $1066, when shelter allowances to take money from their meagre food and ba- remained effectively frozen for EIA participants. sic needs budgets to pay for inadequate shelter. Figure 2 shows the same data but adjusted for Low EIA rates had long been a priority issue price inflation (based on the consumer price in- for anti-poverty activists and researchers across dex for Manitoba, putting all rents in terms of Manitoba. Alternative Provincial Budgets for 2001 the purchasing power of 2018 dollars). As can be and 2006, organized and published by Cho!ces: seen, rents rose faster then the general price lev- A coalition for social justice, and the Canadian el over the 2000–2018 period. From 2000–2016, Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba (CCPA- average real (inflation-adjusted) rents in Winni- MB), called for the raising of EIA shelter bene- peg increased by 35 percent, while incomes only fits.6 A petition by the Social Planning Council increased by just under 14 percent.3 For working of Winnipeg in 2008 calling for higher EIA rates tenants then, rents on average had increased twice received 10,000 signatures, a demand also found Making Space for change: The STory of ManiToba’S renT Assist benefiT 3 figure 1 Average Rents in Winnipeg, 1990 to 2018 1600 Studio 1 Bedroom 1400 2 Bedroom 1,188 3 Bedroom + 1200 1,015 1000 782 800 692 585 588 600 473 400 339 200 0 1992 2012 1996 1998 2016 2018 1994 1990 2014 2010 2002 2006 2008 2004 2000 figure 2 Average Real (inflation adjusted, 2018 base year) Rents in Winnipeg, 1990 to 2018 1600 Studio 1 Bedroom 1400 2 Bedroom 3 Bedroom + 1200 1000 965 820 800 660 600 473 400 200 0 1992 2012 1996 1998 2016 2018 1994 1990 2014 2010 2002 2006 2008 2004 2000 Source: Author’s calculation based on CmHC Housing Market Information Portal and Statistics Canada CPi data.