A proposed solution to our crisis of unaffordable housing that is as big as the problem
Every year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives proposes an Alternative Federal Budget that includes a substantial section addressing housing affordability. This year’s proposal is ambitious but in keeping with an affordability crisis that has only worsened since 2016, when 1.7 million Canadian households were in core housing need. You can read the housing proposals and budget at https://drive.google.com/file/d/11zU43_lxfUAL_DtHDQpjKDLGUBladpi8/view Highlights include:
- Providing a mix of direct investment of $20 billion a year, public land and low-cost financing to fund 100,000 units of community-owned affordable housing a year for a decade.
- A $20 billion Housing Acquisition Fund to allow not-for-profits to buy 60,000 existing private-sector housing that is now affordable, in order to keep it affordable forever. Otherwise, those buildings will be bought up by investors who will ease out or evict existing tenants, do some upgrades and then charge much higher rents.