Since World War II, the federal government had been the primary funder to finance and develop 600,000 public, cooperative and social housing units. In 2019, after a 20-year absence, it adopted its new Housing Strategy, which recognizes the right to the progressive realization of the right to housing.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has declared that all Canadians should have affordable housing by 2030. This text charts the way forward to fulfill the Canadian government’s commitment to proactively respond the needs of 1.7 million poorly housed households, creating needed new housing, renovating existing properties that are unsafe and unsanitary, and helping people who pay more than 30% of their income in rent.
The coronavirus crisis in Canada offers an unprecedented opportunity to find solutions to the shortage of sustainable social and affordable rental housing. Unfortunately and tragically, poverty, being poorly housed and COVID-19 are all part of the same logic for many households.
There are two ways to fund affordable housing. The first is to invest in the cost of housing development and the second is to subsidize households that spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Investing in development should not be a joint cost-sharing undertaking by federal, provincial and territorial governments. The federal government should use its fiscal capacity to fund all capital investments to achieve its goal of making housing affordable for everyone in Canada. Regarding rents, cost sharing between the various levels of government should be limited to income support programs on a permanent basis, to allocate income support to one million households that spend more than 30% and often more than 50 % of their income in rent, so that all households pay no more than 30% of their income in rent.
This is what the government
federal government must:
1. Develop a national program for Aboriginals, by Aboriginals. Focus on culture-based people and support services for a range of holistic services for Indigenous households in core housing need living in urban, rural and northern areas of Canada. Increase the supply of stable, safe and affordable housing by building 73,000 new homes. Establishing safe, secure and affordable housing for Indigenous peoples that is designed, developed, delivered and managed by Indigenous peoples, thus forming a cornerstone on the path to reconciliation and self-determination.
2. Build community housing: a ten-year program to create 300,000 highly affordable off-market, non-profit social and cooperative housing units that will be sustainable in perpetuity; and, to ensure the financial viability of low- and moderate-income households, provide low-interest loans, subsidies and income-appropriate rental assistance.
3. Prevent and end chronic homelessness with clear and measurable goals and timelines. CMHC, through its Rapid Housing Initiative (RCHI) program, is to invest in the construction and operation of a minimum of 50,000 supportive housing units over ten years.
4. Take action to block large private sector funds that acquire rental properties with the aim of improving them and increasing rents, which cease to be affordable, to obtain a high return on their investments. Fund co-ops, other non-profit housing providers and municipal agencies to acquire, renovate and expand existing properties.
5. Use the Federal Lands Initiative to make affordable, sustainable, accessible and socially inclusive housing on government-owned lands: Targeting major assets in the Peel Basin owned by Canada Lands Company.
6. Build on a potential partnership between the federal government and the City of Montreal. Montreal has several projects underway, such as planned eco-districts for municipally owned or controlled properties in Louvain Est and Blue Bonnets.
This text supports the proposal of the pan-Canadian network of national, provincial and territorial housing organizations to create, by 2030, 450,000 social, affordable, accessible and sustainable rental units in perpetuity. It is reasonable to assume that Quebec, proportional to its share of the Canadian population, will receive 22% of all federal funds.