The number of Ontario households waiting for affordable housing has jumped again — just as Queen’s Park ponders a new provincial pledge to end homelessness.

Wait lists grew by more than 6,600 households last year to a record 165,069, the largest single-year increase since 2010, according to a new report being released Tuesday.

The average wait for a rent-geared-to-income unit in Ontario is almost four years, says the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association in its annual report. But in some communities, households can wait almost 10 years before being offered an affordable home.

Residents in Peel, York and Toronto face the longest waits, averaging more than eight, seven and six years respectively, according to the association, which has been collecting wait list data for 10 years.

“These numbers show that the affordable housing crunch is not going to be solved by the current approach,” said the association’s executive director Sharad Kerur.

Kerur welcomed last week’s provincial promise to make ending homelessness part of its new anti-poverty plan.

But like other observers, Kerur wondered how the government could achieve the ambitious goal without a strategy, a deadline or money to fund it.

Queen’s Park has matched Ottawa’s $801 million five-year investment in affordable housing. However, the association estimates Ontario needs $1.3 billion a year over the next 10 years to meet the need.

“We need a multi-pronged approach that includes rent supplements, housing allowances, new housing stock and repairs to existing buildings,” Kerur said. “And we need a much more significant financial commitment from Ottawa.”

Demand for affordable housing has been on a steady rise since 2006, according to the association, which represents more than 163,000 non-profit housing units in more than 220 Ontario communities.

Kerur attributes last year’s 4.2 per cent increase in wait lists to the growth of part-time, unstable jobs and rents in the private market that are rising faster than incomes.

“The problem is that existing tenants aren’t leaving,” he said. “The government isn’t building any more rent-geared-to-income housing. So if tenants don’t move out, waiting lists grow.”

For every household that moves into affordable housing, two applications are cancelled and three new households join the queue, the report notes.

Toronto’s Amanda Murtagh, 30, has been waiting for almost five years and has been told it may be another two to five years before she is offered an affordable apartment close to her extended family in the city’s west end.

The single woman, who has been unable to work due to severe health problems and depression, spends more than half of her $1,250 monthly Ontario Disability Support Program benefits on rent for a bachelor apartment on Lake Shore Blvd. W. And yet, she feels lucky.

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“I was homeless for three months this year, so I’m grateful I have this place,” said Murtagh who is among more than 77,000 households on Toronto’s waiting list.

“It’s just so hard to find anything affordable.”

More than 624,000 Ontario households were in “core housing need” in 2010, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s latest available data. Households that spend more than 30 per cent of their pre-tax income on rent are generally considered to be in core housing need.