So much has changed around housing and homelessness since launching the National Housing Accord
A year ago today, the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness brought together REALPAC, the Smart Prosperity Institute, and numerous other partners from across the housing spectrum to develop a road map to end the rental housing crisis in Canada. The result of this collaboration is The National Housing Accord: A Multi-Sector Approach to Ending Canada’s Rental Housing Crisis. And what’s happened since has been very encouraging.
It was meant as Canada’s blueprint to build more than 2 million units of purpose-built rental housing, including more than 655,000 units of near-market and deeply affordable and sustainable housing and to take immediate action to stop the wave of new homelessness we are experiencing.
It was an ambitious national project, and we hoped the federal government would take notice, but what happened next surprised even us.
Within a week, there was a palpable buzz around the National Housing Accord with endorsements from numerous non-profit and private sector organizations. Today, more than 70 organizations Canada-wide have endorsed the plan.
Within a month, we met with cabinet twice, and then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the federal government would remove GST on the construction of new rental apartment buildings.
Within six weeks, the federal government unlocked an additional $20 billion in low-cost financing for rental housing construction. This measure will add an estimated 30,000 new rental units a year.
Within three months, the government put out a Fall Economic Statement focused on housing with the following measures:
- $15 billion of additional loans for new purpose-built rentals as part of a refreshed Apartment Construction Loan Program (formerly the Rental Housing Construction Finance Initiative);
- $1 billion additional direct funding to the Affordable Housing Fund (formerly the National Housing Co-Investment Fund) for more affordable homes;
- $300 million for Cooperative housing development;
- the removal of GST for new cooperative housing;
- resources for municipalities and provinces to enforce short-term rental restrictions; and,
- a new Canada Mortgage Charter to support those with increasing mortgage costs.
And in Budget 2024 this past April, the federal government announced more than $8.5 billion in new spending on housing, complemented by as much as $55 billion in financing—these investments are promising to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031. The Budget also included $1 billion investment to stabilize Reaching Home, $250 million for housing-focused responses to encampments and unsheltered homelessness, and $50 million to support communities adopt best practices and accelerate reductions in homelessness.
The impact of the National Housing Accord, combined with voters’ discontent at rising inflation and the cost of living, made for a seismic shift in government housing policy. Over the past year, the federal government introduced the most ambitious housing plan in the last 50 years.
What’s next?
Today, many of the measures advocated for by the National Housing Accord have been or are being implement, but still many remain to be implemented. We are proud of everything we have accomplished in the past year. But there is still more work to be done.
People are still suffering without safe, stable, permanent housing options, and we are all paying the price of homelessness right now, or as Tim Richter, CAEH’s President & CEO put it: “I worry about those Canadians who are struggling to pay their rent today and may find themselves homeless tomorrow.”
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness has an ambitious plan for the fall. We will continue to advocate for policies from the National Housing Accord not yet implemented—like a Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit—which would provide immediate rental relief for up to 385,000 households who are at imminent risk of homelessness.
But we won’t stop there. We are looking further down the road, putting together a road map to ensure that tackling homelessness and housing is in every major party’s platform come next year’s election.
We know it’s ambitious and we are ready for the challenge. Are you with us?
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