Four in 10 people say their income is not enough to live on, according to a report from the Toronto Foundation.
That's up from 27 per cent at the onset of the pandemic and 31 per cent in early 2023.
The figure represents 2.7 million people across the GTA who are struggling to get by, an increase of almost 700,000 since 2023, the foundation estimates.
The data is from a survey on employment and skills conducted this summer. The report points to population growth, inflation and stagnant wages as being among the key contributing factors.
Canada-wide, prices have increased 18 per cent since the onset of the pandemic, with even larger increases in food prices at 25 per cent and rent at 23 per cent, the foundation noted.
"These increases, and particularly food and shelter costs, have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable," the Toronto Foundation said in its Toronto's Vital Signs 2024 report.
"The housing crisis is increasingly dire: more Torontonians are unhoused and taking shelter in encampments, and rents have almost doubled, while housing completions have not kept pace with the booming population."
The report noted that finding space in homeless shelters has also become increasingly difficult. In September 2024, there were an average of 230 daily callers looking to be matched to a shelter spot and only seven (about three per cent) were referred to a space, the report said.
In March 2024, there were more than 200 tents in encampments across 72 parks, compared to 82 tents across 24 parks the year before.
The foundation added that Toronto's population grew by 125,000 people last year — five times more than the previous decade's average.
What requires attention now, it said, is the massive increase in "vulnerability" with so many people struggling to get by financially.
"Poverty is no longer 'the other.' It’s us. Half the population [is] earning below the living wage," the foundation said.
"What’s more, the local organizations that exist to support vulnerable Torontonians are at the breaking point."
"Service demands keep going up as donations fall. Yet this is the fundamental support system and the engine of community power. It’s time to get a grip on growth. We have to face up to the facts and step up to the challenge."
You can read the full report at this link.
