About 2.4 million Canadian households are in core housing need, an increase of 660,000 households since the start of the federal National Housing Strategy in 2017. That’s one startling calculation from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The strategy was created to reduce core need by 530,000 households by 1927-28. Instead, the PBO estimates, core need will be higher by 926,000 households by that year. The report gives the strategy credit for keeping another 78,000 households out of core need by that year, but that’s far short of removing a half million households from core need. You can read the report here: https://www.pbo-dpb.ca/en/publications/RP-2425-023-S–federal-spending-housing-affordability-in-2024–depenses-federales-axees-abordabilite-logement-2024#pb!ct
This report reinforces the calls from our Affordable Housing Team and countless organizations across the country for both increased federal funding and sharply focused spending on those in core need. The PBO estimates that real spending (that is, spending after accounting for inflation) by Ottawa on housing and homelessness has increased significantly but spending on assistance for those in housing need has actually declined by about 20 per cent since the decade before the strategy.