Homeward bound: How to create deeply affordable housing

Abstract

Canada faces a severe housing crisis. The federal government has unveiled two major housing initiatives in recent years, but neither has adequately targeted the “deeply affordable housing” that is required to end homelessness and inadequate housing among very-low- and low-income households. The best way to achieve this is a co-ordinated approach that combines mechanisms available to all levels of government.

In addition, governments should adopt clear, consistent income-based definitions of “affordable” and “deeply affordable” housing across programs. This would allow governments to set clear priorities and would permit a stacking of government grants while enabling the monitoring of results against set targets.

In this paper, I argue that increasing the supply of deeply affordable housing will require all levels of government to work together, use a shared definition of affordability across their programs and implement complementary mechanisms targeted to those who need them most.