Liberal housing strategy may not help those most in need

By The Canadian Press

Federal council says key housing programs doing little to help those in deep need

Feb 28, 2022 | 10:00 AM

OTTAWA — A new report says the government’s strategy to help people find affordable homes is doing more to help households who are less likely to need it.

The report from the National Housing Council made public today says the three programs under review have done little to help households who live in homes that are too expensive, or too small, for them.

The council’s report says that thousands of households could be left behind by the Liberal plan unless there is a shift within the programs to help build units targeted to those most in need.

Among the households the council says could be left behind are homeless people the government wants to house, women and children fleeing domestic violence, newcomers and Indigenous people.

The first research report from the council, created as part of the decade-long housing strategy launched in 2017, focuses on a rental construction financing program, another for housing providers that partner with a local government, and the rapid-housing program.

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The report says that the programs combined repair about 66,000 units of existing housing and create just under 35,000 units of new housing.

But those numbers mean the national housing strategy could “fall well short” of lifting 530,000 households out of what’s known as “core housing need,” a benchmark under which a household is deemed to be spending too much on housing that is sub-standard or doesn’t meet their needs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022.