{"id":66,"date":"2025-06-13T10:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-consectetur-adipiscing-elit-quisque-faucibus-ex-sapien-vitae-pellentesque-2\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T15:28:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:28:34","slug":"ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>But the reductions are so severe that they typically exceed the financial advantages of&nbsp;<em>living<\/em>&nbsp;under one roof, according to a recent&nbsp;<em>study<\/em>&nbsp;by John Stapleton, a consultant and retired social assistance benefits designer for the&nbsp;<em>Ontario<\/em>&nbsp;government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result is a powerful incentive for&nbsp;<em>welfare<\/em>&nbsp;recipients to live on their own, a form of forced loneliness that can take a toll on mental health and may also be unnecessarily inflating the demand for affordable rentals, Mr. Stapleton argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have a housing crisis, and we have these people who are incentivized to live separately,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But the reductions are so severe that they typically exceed the financial advantages of&nbsp;living&nbsp;under one roof, according to a recent&nbsp;study&nbsp;by John Stapleton, a consultant and retired social assistance benefits designer for the&nbsp;Ontario&nbsp;government. The result is a powerful incentive for&nbsp;welfare&nbsp;recipients to live on their own, a form of forced loneliness that can take a toll on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image":"<img width=\"750\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo-750x750.png\" class=\"attachment-card-image size-card-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Globe and Mail Logo\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo-750x750.png 750w, https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/>","link":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/","target":"","category":"<div class=\"category\">Ageing in the Right Place<\/div>","date_formatted":"June 13, 2025"},"category":[8,5],"tags":[],"stake-holder":[16,14,15],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ageing-in-the-right-place","category-income-adequacy","stake-holder-older-adult","stake-holder-policy-makers","stake-holder-sector-organizations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But the reductions are so severe that they typically exceed the financial advantages of&nbsp;living&nbsp;under one roof, according to a recent&nbsp;study&nbsp;by John Stapleton, a consultant and retired social assistance benefits designer for the&nbsp;Ontario&nbsp;government. The result is a powerful incentive for&nbsp;welfare&nbsp;recipients to live on their own, a form of forced loneliness that can take a toll on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cliff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cliff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cliff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731\"},\"headline\":\"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\"},\"wordCount\":116,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Ageing in the Right Place\",\"Income Adequacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\",\"name\":\"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Globe and Mail Logo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/\",\"name\":\"NIA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731\",\"name\":\"cliff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cliff\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/author\/cliff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA","og_description":"But the reductions are so severe that they typically exceed the financial advantages of&nbsp;living&nbsp;under one roof, according to a recent&nbsp;study&nbsp;by John Stapleton, a consultant and retired social assistance benefits designer for the&nbsp;Ontario&nbsp;government. The result is a powerful incentive for&nbsp;welfare&nbsp;recipients to live on their own, a form of forced loneliness that can take a toll on [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/","og_site_name":"NIA","article_published_time":"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"cliff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cliff","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/"},"author":{"name":"cliff","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731"},"headline":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds","datePublished":"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/"},"wordCount":116,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png","articleSection":["Ageing in the Right Place","Income Adequacy"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/","url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/","name":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds - NIA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png","datePublished":"2025-06-13T14:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-28T20:28:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Globe-and-Mail-Logo.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Globe and Mail Logo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/ontario-welfare-system-encourages-living-alone-despite-affordable-housing-shortage-study-finds\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ontario welfare system encourages living alone despite affordable-housing shortage, study finds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/","name":"NIA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7534b47ce30c78b0b061a0abfb1731","name":"cliff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2267e1e3ba30c02078cb2c89254a5fe7c99fc5bf608e9dd7ff927913fb849aa0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cliff"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia"],"url":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/author\/cliff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"stake-holder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.yourwebsitebuild.com\/nia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stake-holder?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}