Changes to housing support program don't sit well with poverty advocates

People who rely on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program will be a step closer to homelessness when government cuts kick in, poverty advocates say.

The provincial budget that was tabled in June included $70 million in cuts to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit and the Home Repairs Benefit -- a lump-sum benefit designed to help people living on social assistance pay their rent deposits, utilities arrears, moving costs or other large, one-time housing-related costs.

The government's plan is to combine these programs with other housing and homelessness programs into a new consolidated fund and for the programs to be administered by municipalities. But municipalities will be able to address their own priorities and may choose to spend the money in other ways.