1. Housing and Homelessness Election Guide 2015
  2. 2. Party Platforms
  3. → Comparison to Recommendation 3

→ Comparison to Recommendation 3

3. Invest directly in affordable housing programs

The NDP is creating a $500 million fund to be managed by CMHC in 2016-2017 (shown in the chart above as Rental Housing Grants and Loans). This money will be allocated through CMHC to communities. When loans are repaid, the funding will be reinvested which means there will be some level of ongoing funding but it all appears in the 2016-2017 budget as that is when the fund is capitalized.  The NDP has pledged to create 10, 000 units of housing although as money is reinvested into the CMHC fund more housing could be created. In SOHC 2014 we call for 8,800 units of housing per year, for a total of 88,000 units over ten years. The NDP’s 10,000 units pledge is insufficient to meet total need and must be dramatically increased.

In the fiscal plan released on September 17th housing is mentioned in the category “Help Where It’s Needed Most” which includes a number of areas including “retirement security, poverty reduction, housing support, and other measures to help children and families, including a plan to work to end violence against women.” The funding for this line item is $572 million in 2016-17, $635M in 2017-18, $747M in 2018-19 and $956m in 2019-20 (although not all will go to housing).

The NDP  has made a clear commitment to restoring funding to co-ops and social housing and this was emphasized in both Mulcair and MP Boutin-Sweet’s letters. The initial plan has a detailed cost projection for the next four fiscal years that lays out a budget of:

  • $430 million in 2016-17
  • $500 million in 2017-18
  • $575 million in 2018-19
  • $640 million in 2019-20

These amounts are increases to the current spending levels and are designed to increase in relation to when housing agreements are set to expire. The NDP based their funding allocations on the FCM document “Built to Last: Strengthening the Foundations of Housing in Canada” and the amounts are in line with SOHC 2014.

In terms of IAH no information has been released about funding, except that MP Boutin-Sweet’s letter refers to funding for new housing and housing repairs.