Speaker says the federal government’s response falls far short of the size of the housing crisis.
Our Affordable Housing Team’s latest event, Housing Affordability: What Ottawa Must Do and Why, featured a clear call for bold action from the federal government. We need an all-out, Team Canada housing program large enough to actually deal with the huge size of the problem Canadians are facing.
Jacob Gorenkoff, of the Canada Housing and Renewal Association, outlined why much bolder federal efforts are needed and urged people to contact their Members of Parliament to encourage that bold action.
You can Watch the Event Recording of the event here: https://uuhamilton.ca/affordable-housing/
And read “A Spectator opinion article by our Affordable Housing Co-chair” which addresses similar themes with a Hamilton focus.
Read the article here: https://uuhamilton.ca/a-spectator-opinion-article-by-our-affordable-housing-co-chair/
An easy bit of advocacy:
Write to urge expanding the GST housing rebate to housing co-ops and to all non-profit construction
Here’s a small, concrete action you can take to get more affordable housing. Click here to see a model letter you can adapt to write to our MPs to urge a couple of changes that will strengthen a current federal proposal. As Jacob Gorenkoff explained at our Housing Affordability event, it’s helpful that the federal government plans to remove the GST from new rental construction. But it doesn’t apply to rental housing co-operatives, for no good reason, and only applies to construction that begins after September 14th, instead of all non-profit construction whenever it began. Use our model letter to push for these small but important changes. And then please email housing@uuhamilton.ca to let us know who you sent letters to. Thank you for participating.