Social Housing Application

Information Sheet

What is Social Housing?
Social Housing or rent geared-to-income (RGI) assistance is subsidized housing, available for eligible households. RGI assistance means that the amount of rent paid is determined by household income; rent amounts are approximately 30% of the gross (before taxes) monthly household income. The amount of rent paid by Ontario Works/Ontario Disability Support Program recipients is determined by a scale provided by Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in accordance with the Housing Services Act, 2011.

Who Can Apply?

• At least one member of the household must be 16 years of age or older and able to live independently.
• Each household member must be a Canadian Citizen; or have made an application for status as permanent resident; or a claim for refugee protection; and must not have an enforceable removal order under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada).
• Arrears to any Social Housing Provider must be paid in full or there must be an active repayment agreement plan in place and in good standing.
• No household member will have been convicted of an offence related to rent geared-to-income assistance.
• No household member will have been found by a court of law or the Landlord and Tenant Board to have misrepresented their income for the purpose of rent geared-to-income assistance.
• No household will have assets that exceed $50,000 for a single person or $75,000 for a household of two or more people.
• No household will have income that exceeds the Household Income Limits. Additional information is available online at www.cornwall.ca, under Social Housing.

Additional Information:

• Any changes to an applicant's information must be reported to the Registry as soon as they occur. This ensures that applicants can be contacted at all times as a file will be cancelled if the Registry is unable to contact the applicant at the phone numbers and/or address provided on the application form.
• The Registry will contact you by mail at least once a year for an update. The applicant's name will be removed from the wait list if a response is not received by the date required.
• The process for selecting households is based on the date the application was submitted.
• A member of the household who owns a home must agree to sell it within six (6) months of being housed.
• Market Rent is based on typical rent charges in the private sector for a comparable size unit in the community. Housing Providers that have market rent units keep a separate waiting list. Please contact them directly.
• If you are applying for a modified unit, please contact the individual Housing Provider to obtain specific details as the accessibility features may vary from one Housing Provider to another.

Housing Offer

Approved applicants are entitled to ONE (1) housing offer; therefore, carefully consider your options when making your housing selection. If the offer is refused, the file will be cancelled. Failure to respond to a housing offer shall be considered a refusal.

Special Priority for Victims of Abuse

You may be moved to a higher place on the centralized waiting list if you are currently living with someone who is abusing you, or you have recently stopped living with someone (in the last 3 months) who was abusing you. You may also qualify for special priority if you are a victim of human trafficking. Those individuals who are currently being trafficked or those who have exited trafficking within 3 months are eligible to apply for SPP.

This is called Special Priority status.

For the purposes of Special Priority, abuse means:
One or more incidents of: physical or sexual violence, controlling behaviour, or intentional
destruction of or intentional injury to property, or words, actions or gestures that threaten an individual or lead an individual to fear for his or her safety or trafficking of the member done by any individual.

For the purposes of Special Priority, the abuser must be:

• The abused person’s spouse, parent, child, or other relative, OR
• The abused person’s immigration sponsor, OR
• A person on whom the abused is emotionally, physically or financially dependent.

If the definition above applies to your current situation, please see the Special Priority Application Form. This form must accompany the social housing application. 

Application Submission

You must include all required documents when submitting the application. 

If you do not have access to the internet or a computer, you can obtain paper applications at the reception desk located at 340 Pitt Street, 4th floor, Cornwall, ON.

If you have any questions, please call 613-933-6282 or email humanservices@cornwall.ca.