Affordable Housing

Many organizations, including the federal housing agency, argue that housing became more expensive because demand exceeded supply. Yet a summary by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that housing supply has actually grown faster than population for decades, even as prices soared. What drove up those prices was “banking practices that have directed excessive … Read more

CBC has done a great job summarizing just how out-of-reach home-ownership remains. There are fewer and fewer municipalities today where middle-income earners can afford to buy a home, one priced in the bottom fifth of housing prices. The article quotes a study that compared the ratio of starter home prices to incomes of young, dual-income … Read more

Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing has started construction on a 30-unit Indigenous housing project just up the street from our church. The site, at 95 Dundurn South, will provide flexible and affordable housing for Indigenous students at Mohawk or McMaster. And half the proceeds of our church auction, underway now, will support furnishing and equipping that building. … Read more

Ontario’s subsidized housing programs help less than a third of the Ontario households that pay unaffordable rents or live in adequate or overcrowded housing. And Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) calculates that this will get even worse by 2027-28. The FAO defines a household as “in need of subsidized housing” if the household does not … Read more

Affordable housing programs in Ontario are funded by all three levels of government, but municipalities—local taxpayers—pay most of it. A report by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office shows that 20 years ago, in 2004-5, municipalities paid 57 per cent of the total and in 2024-5, that had risen to 62 per cent, while federal contributions had … Read more