Forty per cent of Toronto can’t even afford living here and the number is only getting worse

If you feel like the last few years have been especially tough as a Toronto resident, a new study is shedding light on the extent to which key quality of life indicators are declining alongside sharp population growth.

The Toronto Foundation’s Vital Signs report is known for tracking how the city is faring and feeling, and though it is usually released every other year, 2024 marks the first short-form edition published to address a new “urgent reality” of not just a rapid surge in people in the city, but in vulnerability — economic, mental and otherwise.

“It’s time to get a grip on growth,” the organization’s head writes before delving into just how T.O.’s population spike is “showing up,” which includes less financial and job stability, as well as strains on the healthcare and housing sectors.

Progressively more people are finding they simply cannot afford life here: 40 per cent of respondents to this year’s survey cited not having enough household income to cover basic expenses, compared to 31 per cent last year, an increase of a whopping 700,000 residents.

As the report notes, prices for goods and services in Canada have skyrocketed around 18 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, and even more for groceries (25 per cent) and rent (23 per cent).

Meanwhile, unemployment is on the rise, with an average of 8.4 per cent of people in the city now without a job. This figure is far worse for young people in particular, a staggering one in five of which are now unable to secure work. “Half of Toronto tax filers earn less than $38,500 per year, significantly under the $45,600 that is considered a living wage,” the report reads.

As a result, food banks in Toronto are seeing an all-time high of more than 300,00 people per month, and are serving these clients on less funds in a time of fewer donations, more staffing challenges and more program cuts than in previous years.

Other worrying trends are also at play, like the fact that more people are living in public outdoor spaces — as of March, more than 72 parks have tent encampments, compared to 24 last year — and over half a million people in the city don’t have a family doctor.

While many will note that all of these issues are being exacerbated by the fact that metropolitan Toronto is now home to 222,000 more people than it was a year ago — five times the average annual rise over the previous decade, mostly due to immigration— the foundation asserts that the “overlooked” growth in vulnerability is one that’s been “building for decades.”

“Increasing economic vulnerability is leading to precarious mental and physical well-being,” the foundation states — perhaps an obvious point, but now quantified with new figures.

“Our hope is that the economic growth will continue, so the heightened vulnerability will begin to drop. But when 2.7 million people say they don’t have enough to make ends meet, we can’t look away. The rise in vulnerability requires our full attention.”

Despite the Toronto Foundation’s attempt to combat negative feelings about our unignorable population increase and its effects, other experts have weighed in with somewhat different tones, with TD Economics saying that it has created “textbook demand shock” that has greatly impacted affordability for housing and everything else.