Housing Affordability | How Did We Get Here?

So how did we get here? As an historical policy and societal overview of our current state of housing affordability challenges:

1919 – our first public sector home ownership initiative to support Veterans

1946 – CMHC was established with efforts to use public funds to enable mortgages and home ownership

1964-1993 - Public/Community Housing – Federal / Provincial collaboration & philosophy to provide housing at a reasonable cost and a social right. Beginning of non-profit and coop sector. Approximately 500,000 units of social housing stock built in Canada. (Hulchanski & Shapcott, 2004)

• 1970’s – condo ownership legislation, speculation increased price of homes/ land with baby boomers entering housing market; significant interest rate increase (21% in 1981)

• 1984 – conservative leadership, start of a 10 year steady decline of federal funds for housing, ignoring expert recommendations; reduction in federal social assistance funding, federal downloading and reduction of provincial transfers…federal budget surplus and tax reductions for highest income earners, at the expense of social spending

• 1993 – complete federal withdrawal on non-market housing; legacy projects with operating or mortgage agreements expiring. Leading to current loss of stock concern.

1994-2017 – Devolution

• Federal devolution to province, provincial (Ontario) investments decreased, cancelled projects (17,000 coop/np units) and lost units (45,000 private rental, 12,300 social)

• Ontario is the only province that transferred administration of legacy housing programs to the municipal level

• The dismantling of the federal social housing supply program and lack of coordinated strategy, left the provinces and municipalities to burden the direct and indirect costs related to the fall out, including physical and mental health, social services, and safety implications

• In 2004, Hulchanski (2004) stated that approximately 5% of Canada’s households lived in non-market social housing, the smallest social housing sector of any Western nation except the United States which had 2%; compared with 40% in the Netherlands, 22% in the United Kingdom, and 15% in France and Germany

Since 2001, BC and Quebec have contributed over three quarters of all new affordable housing supply in Canada with the key attributes of a systems approach, institutional infrastructure, and government and community capacity leading to the creation of a collaborative conducive ecosystem to enact and enable creative, flexible, and effective solutions while also sustaining existing stock (Pomeroy, 2019)

2017–today – Re-engagement

• National Housing Strategy (2017) – first time the Canadian government has recognized housing as a fundamental human right through legislation

• However data shows that between 2011 and 2016 for every one new affordable unit created, fifteen existing private affordable units were lost; the cost to build and replace these 322,600 lost units would be more than six times the entire NHS budget (Pomeroy, 2020; Canadian Housing Policy Roundtable, 2021).

• In 2017, Canada’s social housing sector totaled approximately 650,000 units representing just under 5% of all of housing and almost one fifth of all rental housing (Pomeroy, 2017). Ontario’s regulatory housing framework is ‘confusing, and impossible to navigate’, there are many ministries, acts, regulations, policies, and interests that are not aligned on requirements and processes, and funding programs are oversubscribed and without a long term vision or strategy.

  We are in a situation as Hulchanski (2005) suggests, of having an incomplete housing system in Canada where the market demand for housing is addressed however the social need is not. Those with too little wealth to stimulate a market demand are ignored.

References

Canadian Housing Policy Roundtable. (2021). Three Polices Needed for a Healthy Housing System.

Hulchanski, J.D. (2005).Rethinking Canada's Housing Affordability Challenge. Centre for Urban and Community Studies University of Toronto, for the Government of Canada’s Canadian Housing Framework Initiative.

Hulchanski (2004). How Did We Get Here? The Evolution of Canada’s “Exclusionary” Housing System (Ch.11) in D. Hulchanski and M. Shapcott (Ed) Finding Room: Policy Options for a Canadian Rental Housing Strategy. Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

Hulchanski, D. (2004). What Factors Shape Canadian Housing Policy? The Intergovernmental Role in Canada’s Housing System (Ch. 10) in R. Young and C. Leuprecht (Ed) Canada: The State of the Federation 2004, Municipal – Federal – Provincial Relations in Canada.Institute of Intergovernmental Relations School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University by McGill-Queens University Press.

Hulchanski & Shapcott. (2004). Introduction: Finding Room in the Housing System for All Canadians (Ch.1) in D. Hulchanski and M. Shapcott (Ed) Finding Room: Policy Options for a Canadian Rental Housing Strategy. Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

Pomeroy, S. (2020). Augmenting the National Housing Strategy with an affordable housing acquisition program. Focus Consulting Inc.

Pomeroy, S., Gazzard,N., & Gaudreault, A. (2019).Promising practices in affordable housing: Evolution and innovation in BC and Quebec. Canadian Housing Policy Roundtable.

Pomeroy, S. (2017).Discussion Paper: Envisioning a Modernized Social and Affordable Housing Sector in Canada. Carlton University Centre for Urban Research and Education.