In Toronto, some can afford to sleep in condos while others are left to sleep on the sidewalks. The average price of a home in Toronto, from condos to detached houses, is roughly $780,000, a cost which many cannot afford. A large number of people are living on the edge and are at risk of losing their homes. The competition for a limited supply of housing has left people with no choice but to remain as renters. The worst victims of the housing crisis are those at the bottom of the wealth divide, the poor. I have a roof over my head but within one paycheck, I can be homeless. Whistle Wickham Edwards was homeless for years. She lost her home after her husband died from diabetes. Because he was the main provider of the family, she and her two children were forced to leave their condo and find another place to stay. In terms of the shift, I went from I guess relaxed to militant, you know I mean? Now I had to go, go, go and I'm still going. I'm not going to give up. She and her kids shuffled around homes of their friends and family, staying for a few weeks to months at a time. With no permanent long-term solution, they were stuck in a state of homelessness for five years. The one place we lived, with the one bedroom apartment, my three kids and five others. Whistle is a school bus driver. She makes roughly $1000 a month, however, it is still not enough to cover the cost of a one bedroom apartment in Toronto. Before her husband's death, she drove the school bus to pass the time but once he died, it became their only source of income. Paying rent was a constant struggle. We're always, always, always behind. Always behind, always. Not by a $100 or $200 because at the time when I lived over at the other place, the rent was 12-something with a two-bedroom. She turned to welfare and social assistance but didn't receive enough government support. See that's another thing. When you go on to welfare or social assistance, you can't come with money. You can't come with money. "Do the kids have university funds?" or whatnot, I said yeah, "Well how much?" and I had to go and find all of that out. "Oh, well you still have money here. Can you take out –" there's like, that's a different... yeah, I've had to do a lot. She recently moved into a new apartment but even now her stay there is not a guarantee. Whistle's story is not unique child and family homelessness is on the rise. Families stay in shelters three times longer than any other group, which is an average of 50 days. More cases go untold because parents and children often seek temporary shelter with family and friends. But even they haven't faced the worst of the housing crisis. But before, this was a bigger hedge and when you got back in behind there at night time, nobody could see you, you know. Yeah, we laid out right here. Derek George has lived on the streets of Toronto for several years. Right out in the open, just bunk down. He has moved around from various shelters to warming centers and waited almost a month for a bed to sleep in. Most shelters in Toronto reach full capacity on any given night, with an occupancy rate of 96 per cent. Like I say, there's always a waiting list for, if not all of them, most of them have a waiting list. But it's very difficult to say "Okay, I'm gonna go and wait at Gateway" for instance. Okay so I go, I sit there from morning till night and at night, they tell you "Sorry, there's no bed." Rita De Biasi has been advocating for the homeless. She was at the Toronto Homeless Memorial and a march for affordable housing, pushing for change. Anywhere you look in the city, you're going to see there's someone that's vulnerable or panhandling or needs help. Those are the ones that I want to look after. My sister she was homeless just in the summertime with her boyfriend and she told me, she's like "Wait, I was sleeping on a chair," I'm like "Oh my gosh." Like, it's such a sin. The the government needs to do more. They need to look after our vulnerable people. We reached out to the City of Toronto's Shelter, Support & Housing Administration to ask them why they aren't providing more funding for homeless shelters but they declined an interview. However, Press Secretary for the Ontario Ministry of Housing said the province is taking action through their Fair Housing Plan. Even when Rita's sister and Whistle received government housing, it didn't make their situations much better. She got housing and she told me, in Rexdale, the week after she moved, there there was a shooting in a building. So I'm like "Oh my gosh." They actually took us to some apartments, which pisses me off because he saw the one they took us to, where I'm living now, that's the better one, as compared to what I saw. They "Oh, I know" it's because they know the landlord is going to let you in with bad credit. Well, those landlords that let you in with bad credits are landlords who have bad buildings. Wickham Edwards makes roughly $1000 every month, while the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto is roughly $1800 a month. That money in the hands of someone on social assistance is literally the money that means the difference between being housed and being homeless, between sleeping on the floor and sleeping on a bed. It's the difference between being in crisis and stability. Ironically, as a city becomes more prosperous and more affluent and even as we see condos and new housing being built all around us, what happens is that the housing is only affordable for those who are either well off or extremely well off. Stephen Wong is one of the leading experts on homelessness in Toronto. He works at St. Michael's Hospital, where he focuses on improving the health of people who are homeless. What we're finding is that there's a significant group of people in our cities who are vulnerably housed, who have much of the same physical and mental health problems that people who are homeless are struggling with. They have housing right now, today they're housed, but they're right on the edge and they are actually at risk of becoming homeless. Derek is still uncertain for what his future holds. Yes, they're building better facilities but the people the facilities are supposed to be serving aren't getting served. They're not, they're wandering around, nowhere to go, disillusioned, they feel hopeless, helpless and alone. I felt hopeless, helpless and alone. I still, even though I'm housed, yes I can go to St. Stephen's, you know, I can go to the corner and drop in, I can talk to people but helpless, hopeless and alone. Despite the challenges Whistle has faced, she's hopeful about change. Is it stronger? I don't even know to stay stronger but we know we can survive anything. I think we've just basically been the same way, we have just a different location. There may be more hope for Derek and Whistle. On November 22, the federal government released a $40 billion National Housing Strategy. Its new mandate is to provide rent support for 300,000 low-income families and to cut chronic homelessness by half in the next decade. For Ryerson documentary unit, I'm Noella Ovid.