Tell them TODAY! To BUDGET MORE for affordable and supportive housing!
You can,
a) send a brief to both levels of government as part of their pre-budget consultations, or, more quickly but likely less effectively,
b) use existing surveys to make a couple of key arguments. You will need to click the “Other” option often and add items if you use the survey, since the priorities offered by the two governments are sometimes quite narrow.
At both levels, we need much greater capital investments to build new non-profit and co-operative housing. As noted in this week’s other housing item (read here), we need big increases in total spending on affordable housing, four times what Ottawa is currently spending, for instance. We also need the governments to provide larger proportions of the costs of each project to be funded by grants, not loans, to keep costs low enough to allow deeply affordable rents. Much greater funding for support services is also needed to help those with high needs to stay housed.
Scotiabank has joined other credible groups in arguing for at least a doubling of the number of deeply affordable housing units. That would mean adding at least 655,000 new affordable units in a decade, four times the federal government goal of 160,000.
Here’s how to participate in the consultations by the end of Friday, February 10/23:
- Find the federal survey and how to submit a brief at https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/consultations/2022/pre-budget-consultations-2023.html
- Find the Ontario survey and how to submit a brief at https://www.ontario.ca/page/2023-budget-consultations