It takes at least $18 an hour to afford an average apartment in Hamilton, putting the city in league with others in the province where rent continues to outpace incomes.

Nearly half of Ontario tenants earn less than $40,000 a year, and three out of four of those households pay "unaffordable rents," the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) says in a new report.

Affordability is based on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's benchmark: shelter costs are less than 30 per cent of pre-tax household income.

The ACTO report, called "Where Will We Live? Ontario's Affordable Rental Housing Crisis," is released as provincial leaders jockey for support ahead of the June 7 election.

"We wanted to remind voters we are facing a crisis and to remind politicians they have a responsibility to make sure the crisis doesn't get any worse," Kenneth Hale, ACTO's legal services director, said Tuesday.

The report says rising rents are forcing tenants to sacrifice basic necessities, displacing them from their communities and driving them to homelessness.

Arguing "the status-quo is no longer an option," it makes five recommendations:

•Provincial matching of federal National Housing Strategy funds;

•More purpose-built housing with "deep affordability" meaning rent is no more than 30 per cent of income;

•Preservation of existing affordable units by reducing "financial incentives for landlords to push out sitting tenants";

•Recognition of the right to housing in law.

Based on 2016 census data, ACTO found 45.4 per cent of renter households in Hamilton pay unaffordable rates. (Factoring in Grimsby and Burlington, which are part of the census metropolitan area, it's 45.2 per cent.)

The average monthly shelter cost in Hamilton was $947 in 2016.

Someone earning $14 an hour, the current minimum wage, would have to work 52 hours a week to afford that, the report says.

ACTO found Vaughan had the highest average monthly shelter cost at $1,587, requiring an hourly wage of $31. Chatham-Kent was the lowest at $744 and $14 an hour.

All three of Ontario's major parties say they will support affordable housing, but they differ on approach and policy.

Last month, the provincial and federal Liberal governments announced a $4.2-billion social and community housing agreement over 10 years.

Regulation-wise, Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals have expanded rent control to all units, including those built after 1991.

That means no hikes to existing tenants higher than inflation, with a standing cap of 2.5 per cent. This year, the guideline is 1.8 per cent.

But Hale says the province should reintroduce vacancy rent control — a measure former PC premier Mike Harris scrapped — to rein in hikes between tenancies.

"We think it's long overdue."

As it stands, when a resident leaves, there's no limit on what the landlord can ask a new renter to pay.

In Hamilton, it's not unusual for a recently vacated apartment that went for about $700 to be renovated and rented anew for roughly $1,400.

Last week, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told The Spectator her party would revisit vacancy rent control if it forms the next government.

"That's one of the things that I think we need to look at, for sure, because it's not worked."

In the 1990s, then-premier Harris deregulated vacancy control to encourage the private sector to build more rental stock.

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That didn't happen, the ACTO report points out: purpose-built rentals represent less than 9 per cent of all units built since 1990.

"In fact, (vacancy decontrol) has led to landlords pressuring tenants to get out for the purposes of jacking the rent," Horwath said.

Some large Hamilton landlords have offered longtime tenants cash incentives to leave while eliminating services such as coin-operated laundry rooms.

Some residents have organized protests, including an ongoing rent strike at Stoney Creek Towers near Eastgate Square over proposed increases.

The NDP says it would introduce new measures to "crack down" on above-guideline increases, or AGIs.

But local Liberal incumbent Ted McMeekin defended AGIs — when done properly — and vacancy decontrol, arguing they are fair measures.

Eliminating them would "kill any rental development," said McMeekin, who's seeking re-election in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. "What incentive would there be?"

McMeekin said the Liberals have worked with partners to find "creative ways" to bolster affordable housing.

The former housing minister pointed to a recent deal between the province, the city and Mohawk College to buy former psychiatric hospital lands on the Mountain brow.

The arrangement allows the city to use the sale proceeds to create affordable housing in a planned mixed-use building at 191 York Blvd.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford's campaign declined an interview request but told The Spectator in an email he supports the "status quo on rent control."

Ford's team pointed to hydro and home heating costs as "one of the drivers of these rent increases."

"Doug Ford's plan is to reduce hydro rates by 12 per cent and reduce the cost of home heating by removing the cap and trade carbon tax," Melissa Lantsman wrote.

The Green party did not respond to The Spectator's request for comment.

tmoro@thespec.com

905-526-3264 | @TeviahMoro