The faces of Greater Toronto and Hamilton’s middle class—teachers, nurses, paramedics—are increasingly hidden behind a veil of financial anxiety. In a city built by their hands, even steady work no longer guarantees a foothold. A report from CivicAction gives these invisible poor a name and a warning: the walls are closing in, and quietly, they’re slipping away.
Middle-income households, earning between $40,000 and $125,000 annually, once formed the region’s backbone. They raised families, staffed hospitals, and kept neighbourhoods vibrant. But these days, a nurse earning $80,000 finds home ownership in Toronto as remote as a lottery win. According to CivicAction’s CEO Leslie Woo, such a worker now needs to make over $200,000 to qualify for a mortgage on an average home. The city’s price-to-income ratio has ballooned to 11.8, forcing middle-class families to allocate as much as 63 per cent of their income to shelter—double the recommended threshold.
The consequences ripple outward. Over the last decade, more than 500,000 people have left the GTHA for more affordable regions. Families no longer see a future where their roots were planted. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed by CivicAction and Boston Consulting Group reported deep dissatisfaction with their housing or commute, with many contemplating job changes or relocating altogether to cope.
The effects are not limited to personal hardship. With 29 per cent of businesses struggling to attract workers and 42 per cent contemplating relocation due to housing issues, the region risks economic stagnation. Food bank use is soaring—one in ten Torontonians needed help last year. Essential services, from healthcare to emergency response, bleed millions each year due to staffing woes, while gridlocked roads drain billions from the economy.
Solutions, as Woo cautions, won’t come from any single source. Employers, governments, and communities must all step up. The invisible poor are not just a statistic—they are the very lifeblood of the GTHA, and unless action is swift, the city risks losing not just its workers, but its soul.
