When Dr. Carolyn Whitzman spoke at our Housing Affordability event in June, she provided detailed calculations of housing need in Hamilton. Now, she has used the same Housing Assessment Resource Tool—which she has helped develop through the University of British Columbia—for all of Canada. Her report was done for the Federal Housing Advocate.
She calculates that there will be a need for at least 4.3 million homes that rent for less than the $1,050 a month, which is the most these low-income earners could afford. Plus, another 3.9 million households that would need housing that costs less than $1,680. And another 1.4 million households that have incomes above the median income but either because of large families or very expensive housing markets like Vancouver or Toronto need below-market rentals.
The report is based on households in core housing need but also on those who are left out of the calculation of core need, such as students, people in shared housing such as lodging homes or long-term care homes and people who have no home at all—surely those in greatest need.
Whitzman is quite clear how her calculations, which are income-specific and also take account of household size, differ from recent calculations by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which estimated Canada needs about 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to produce affordable housing. Whitzman says the CMHC approach would basically mean flooding the market with houses so that the supply would be larger than demand. Developers and builders are unlikely to keep building in such circumstances.
You can read Dr. Whitzman’s report here: https://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/human-rights-based-calculation-canada%E2%80%99s-housing-shortages