We need to double the percentage of non-profit housing units in Canada
One of the most influential advocates for affordable housing has recently released a Blueprint for Housing, proposals for a new generation of policies and programs for affordable housing in Canada. It was borne out of a recognition that “existing housing policies and programs are not doing enough to ensure that all who live in Canada have homes that are affordable and meet their needs.”
One of the key recommendations is the “ambitious, but realistic goal” of doubling the proportion of housing in Canada that is community owned (public, social and co-operative not-for-profit housing). About 5 per cent of housing in Canada is community housing. The goal is to raise that to 10 per cent by 2035. The report didn’t provide numbers. But the census shows there are about 15 million housing units in Canada today, so 10 per cent would mean more than 1.5 million community housing units. There are only about 600,000 community housing units now.
The tragedy in Canada is that we once built as many as 20,000 units of community housing a year to create all of those 600,000 units between the mid-1960s and 1993 and then stopped. We did start again but timidly, and we’ve lost about as many units as we have built. So, for three decades we have basically stood still, while the population grew by 10 million. So now we are playing catch up. Meanwhile, a lot of people whose incomes were once enough to afford rents or to buy now can’t afford their homes and almost every measure of housing need and affordability has worsened.
The report also recommends Indigenous policies, ways to renew the existing affordable housing stock, measures to end homelessness and more. It is worth reading. https://chra-achru.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Blueprint-for-Housing_CHRA-2022-1.pdf