Things worth mentioning in your letter to MPs, Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries
- I hope that the promises that were implied in Throne Speech will be followed with firmer, more significant financial commitments that will end the housing crisis.
- I am a senior (working parent, young working person, etc.) and cannot afford as much as I am paying for rent.
OR
Although we own our own home, our adult children/many friends /some of my relatives cannot afford either the high rents or the high housing prices.
OR
Although I am working and can afford my current rent (just barely), I live in constant fear of renoviction.
OR
I own a small business, and my potential customers are spending so much on rent / mortgages that they can’t afford to buy my services/products as often as before. So, I can’t employ as many people as I would like. This was true even before COVID.
- Toronto’s housing crisis has become Hamilton’s housing crisis; rents and housing prices here are soaring.
- I want the government to allocate much more funding for the creation of decent rental housing that will remain affordable in the decades to come to average and low income individuals and families.
- I would prefer that the majority of the new housing units be mixed-income, preferably in the form of housing coops, but that money also be allocated for assisted living units run by not-for-profit organizations and municipalities.
- There are currently 1.7 million households in Canada that are in inadequate housing or in housing that is too expensive for their incomes, or who are known to be homeless. Even two years ago, nearly 7000 people were on the wait list for affordable housing in Hamilton; that is just the tip of the iceberg; many people who need much more affordable housing don’t apply, due to the long waitlists.
- The UK government of Clement Atlee managed to build over a million units of decent housing that was affordable for average and low income people between 1945 and 1951, even though the UK was digging out from under the rubble of WWII.Canada’s government should be similarly ambitious.
- Until enough units of non-market housing are built, the government to provide funding for rent subsidies, so that fewer people are evicted by landlords.
- Even the unsubsidized units in housing coops are substantially more affordable than the housing units currently available in the open for-profit market. Coops create communities.
- The current housing crisis, economic crisis and COVID crisis is the most serious challenge that Canada has faced since WWII. The government should not hesitate to do what must be done to ensure that every Canadian has decent housing that does not cost more than 30 percent of their income.
- Embarking on a major expansion of non-market housing would not only meet a basic human need, but also stimulate the economy and provide needed jobs.
- Please discuss these issues with your colleagues. I await your response.
- I will be watching the economic update, and I hope to see a much more robust commitment to the creation of non-market housing. I vote.
Click here for a list of politicians to write to, and their contact info.