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Housing
Decent, safe and affordable housing is a basic human necessity. Without it, there is no foundation for people to thrive and enjoy good health, personal security, and stable communities. Today, in Canada, several million people lack adequate housing, and many are without any shelter at all. Various forms of affordable housing - emergency, transitional and supportive - together with income and health-related supports and services are needed to adequately house and protect vulnerable Canadians.

Although the private housing market provides homes for the majority of Canadians, it cannot meet the housing needs of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens - low-income families, new immigrants, Aboriginal people, people that are mentally or physically challenged, single-parent families, and seniors living alone. Over 1.7 million households, one in five, cannot afford adequate and suitable housing without spending 30 per cent or more of their income.

In 1993, Canada... cancelled its social housing program. 1995 and 2002 marked the first extended period, in almost 50 years, in which federal and provincial governments provided no funding for new affordable housing. Instead, the government relied on the private market to meet the demand for new affordable housing. The result was an increasingly dramatic shortage of affordable vacant rental units and an increasing homelessness rate.

In 2001, The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced a new, but very limited housing program. The $680 million Affordable Housing Program (AHP) was to be administered by provinces that provide matching funding. Since 2001, the number of Canadian citizens unable to afford decent housing or any housing at all has risen dramatically, but growth in new affordable units has not kept pace. There is a serious shortage of affordable housing throughout Canada.

AUTHOR: Power, Asetha (2008) Homeless Hub. [Show More][Show Less]


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A Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN) initiative. The CHRN has received financial support from the Government of Canada’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada