Canada’s Social Housing Crisis- An embarrassment for the Municipal, Provincial, Federal Governments

Toronto’s housing crisis shows no signs of abating.

The city is already among the 10 most expensive major housing markets in the world, as measured by the ratio of household income to house prices. And Toronto house prices are forecast to jump again this year, by just under 10 per cent in 2020, according to a report last month from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. Toronto has a housing crisis because there aren’t enough houses. It’s that simple, though policymakers don’t seem to understand that. Supply has not kept up with the GTA’s rapid population growth. Between 2016 and 2019, the GTA added more than 325,000 jobs, but only 102,000 new homes. And only two per cent of those new homes are classified as affordable. Unfortunately, we have misdiagnosed the problem. We have attacked only the demand side of the housing crisis, when our problem is lack of supply.The Bank of Canada has kept interest rates artificially low in a bid to make our insufficient supply of houses somehow affordable. Toronto’s surtax on foreign home buyers tries to make the limited supply of houses affordable by discouraging offshore buyers. The feds’ stress tests on mortgage applicants have tried to make a limited housing stock affordable by discouraging would-be buyers of modest means.

Montreal is driven by increased demand and rising housing prices,

Montreal's rental market has become increasingly competitive, leaving low-income families especially vulnerable.A new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows the city — long viewed as a haven for cheap, roomy apartments — has seen its vacancy rate tighten for the second consecutive year.The rate in the Montreal area dropped to 1.9 per cent in 2018, compared to 2.8 per cent a year earlier. The shortage is particularly acute for larger, two and three-bedroom apartments.

Housing advocates view anything below three per cent as concerning.

"The demand is so strong right now," said Francis Cortellino, an economist with CMHC.

"There's more supply and yet the vacancy rate is lower." The report says an influx of international arrivals, including refugees, foreign students and temporary workers, has contributed to the rise in demand.As well, young households are turning to the rental market as housing prices grow further out of reach for man

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Vancouver Housing crisis is an embarrassment for both the municipal, provincial and federal governments.

We need a total of 10,000 new houses every year, that's how many units of non-market rental housing a Canadian think tank says need to be built every year to address Metro Vancouver's ongoing affordability crisis.According to Marc Lee, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who wrote a report on the matter, the problem in Vancouver isn't a lack of construction, it's a mismatch between what's being built and what's needed. We've had a major building boom in recent years," he said. "But for some reason, we're not building the type of housing that we actually need to address the crisis."Non-market rental housing, which included public housing and co-ops, is more affordable than the average for-profit, privately-developed home. The emphasis has been on building condos," Lee told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On The Coast. We've seen some efforts by municipal governments to try to move the needle on that … but the end result still ends up being apartments that are very expensive. Vancouvers “social housing problem is a problem for the poor, single parents, and I don’t care” (Jesse Whaslen from Concord Developments)

Vancouvers “social housing problem is a problem for the poor, single parents, and I don’t care” (Jesse Whaslen from Concord Developments)

"Municipalities across the Lower Mainland have brought rules and incentives to encourage developers to build rental units, as well as focusing on building more social housing. Lee argues the push for affordability needs to be more aggressive to make a difference. We haven't come up with the numbers to get ahead of the curve," he said. Jim Reasons from Toronto, Ontario states, 'we need to understand both arguments here, remember the poor people and especially the single mothers or single parents out their chose to live their lives independently, if they stayed married there wouldn't be a family living below the poverty line"

As earlier indicted, the problem in this scenario is that the community housing which is available has a 13-15 Year wait list in Toronto with approximately 102,049 applicants waiting. In Vancouver there is a 7-8 year wait list with 10K wait list and in Montreal 22K. The existing community housing infrastructure is decrepit and in need of repair, the new housing (condos) which are being built for low income, permanent disabled individuals, along with single parent (households- single mother or single father raising a child) on fixed income support are being rented out at the market rate and not the segmented population which requires this housing.

For example, in Toronto, Ontario downtown approximately 13 new condo buildings were allocated towards low income housing – priced at approximately 30% of your monthly income. The problem is, every single Toronto resident attempted to apply for these units which typically meant you were paying $570-$670 per unit vs. the market rate of 1 bedroom, 2-bedroom condos at $1600-$2900

If the federal government and provincial government doesn’t began to allocate affordable housing solutions, there will be a large number of residents within Canada either on wait list, or living below the poverty line

If the federal government and provincial government doesn’t began to allocate affordable housing solutions, there will be a large number of residents within Canada either on wait list, or living below the poverty line (like in Somalia, Ecuador, North Korea, Ethiopia) since the fixed monthly income would typically be used to pay for rent, instead of food. Remember the Ontario government only provides a subsidy of $$533 for Ontario Works shelter portion or $496 for Ontario Disability support program for resident, this means that if your rent exceeds your shelter portion, you will be paying out of pocket or from your food portion. Much of the intended expenses for those receiving various financial government support programs are used for rental expenses exceeding what is typically allocated, etc.

Soon we will see more homeless or urbanized ghetto likely panhandling or squeegee window washing and in various YMCA facilities. In a 1st World Country with one of the highest standards of living, it is a shame on both the provincial and federal government. I have been waiting since 2013, meaning 7 years to this date. Remember folks and this is to those system bilkers and scammers who make fake identification and pillage our various systems, etc. Most of the general public doesn’t have access to multiple identities and licenses, or connections to various housing resources (where they can walk into any apartment/condo building and put an informant into any suite or unit). They live like everyone else, ironically while doing the EXACT same conducts as those police officers shining their badges when walking into the various police departments