The documentary Push made a big splash when it was released in 2019. It follows United Nations Special Rapporteur for Housing, Leilani Farha as she investigates what’s behind soaring housing costs. Now you can watch it, online, on Thursday January 22, 7 p.m., by registering here https://hamiltondiocese.com/reel-justice-film-festival/ It’s part of the Hamilton Catholic diocese’s Reel Justice film festival. As a bonus, someone from the new Caroline Street Co-op will speak. Part of the film, near the end, features Hamilton tenants.
Housing affordability, locally and across Canada, is much worse today than it was in 2019. Mortgage payments to buy a home today in the Hamilton-Burlington area would take about 47 per cent of household income, up from about 33 per cent in 2019. And 41,450 households in the Hamilton-Burlington area were in core housing need in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s the highest level since that measure of need was introduced in the 1980s and was up almost 30 per cent since 2018. Many of those households had one or more employed members, but still struggled to pay rents than keep rising faster than incomes.