Vanessa Raponi

The Mayor and City Council

Homelessness. My Dad was unhoused on the streets of Toronto for a decade, losing limbs and eventually his life to homelessness. I have been working on a documentary about his journey, as well as taken continuous education courses at TMU directly focused on Homelessness in Canadian Society. This closely overlaps with Food Insecurity, as I have spent time working for the Daily Bread Food Bank on the 2026 Who's Hungry report. I will focus on addressing the root causes of poverty (Affordable Housing, Income Supports and Decent Work).

Housing

We need to invest in more affordable and supportive housing. All new developments should have a % deeply affordable units, and we must build family-sized homes (2-3 bedrooms of adequate size). We need social services in place to match folks in transition from encampments/homelessness through shelters through permanent housing to have wraparound supports. All existing tenants must have clear knowledge of their rights, and protection via Tenants Associations and unions. Rent control is essential.

Cost of Living

Employment is a key area of addressing cost of living: applying to 1000 jobs on LinkedIn with no responses, and struggling to get big chains to consider you for a cashier role is simply not cutting it anymore. The city needs to intervene to connect workers with employment opportunities. More job fairs, more professional development investments to upskill talented hardworking people. All sectors of public, private, entrepreneurial and non-profit work need help filling open roles. Internships & apprenticeships should be prioritized as well.

Safety in Public Spaces

More investment in resources like 211 (the Toronto Community Crisis Line), addressing the root causes of homelessness (ranging from affordable housing to stronger community building to reduce social isolation), and ensuring mental health and drug addiction services are well invested in. We must focus on following the strategies experts recommend, that are backed by science. Folks don't feel safe, and so many people are in crisis who need serious help. We must tackle this issue head on, from all angles.

Getting Around the City

We need to ensure multi-modal harmony is invested in the city. There is so much car congestion because there are too many cars on the road. We need to ensure transit is reliable, affordable, accessible and safe to increase ridership. We need safe, physically separated bike lanes. We need to invest in more sharing programs like Communauto (car sharing) or Bike Share TO, to have fewer vehicles on the streets. We need to work together, and ensure safety remains the top priority.

Confronting Hateful and Hostile Behaviour

Toronto’s strength is our vast diversity, and our ability to connect over what makes us similar instead of different. We have the most vibrant, rich cultures from all countries, religions, personal hobbies and passions, and appreciating one another is the core of Toronto’s soul. We need to release the tension by simply coming together, and spending time connecting as people. Interfaith panels, bringing justice to hateful behavior or vandalism, and ultimately accelerate anti-hate rapid response planning.