Non-profit and private sectors join forces to address Canada’s rental housing crisis

A group of Canadian housing sector organizations – non-profit and for-profit housing providers, developers, and investors – have created The National Housing Accord: A Multi-Sector Approach to Ending Canada’s Rental Housing Crisis.

The group’s 10-point plan outlines a blueprint to restoring affordability in the rental housing system, by creating at least two million new affordable and market purpose-built rental units in the next seven years, supporting the growth of non-profit housing and providing immediate protection to those most in need.

Artem Podrez

“Homelessness is driven by the high cost of rent and a lack of affordable housing. Ending homelessness and achieving the right to housing requires a healthy rental housing market and supply of deeply affordable and supportive housing that does not exist today. This is a solvable problem, but the challenge we face is too big for government alone – we need government, investors, the private and the non-profit sectors working together. The housing sector is ready to step up, but we need the federal government to join us,” said Tim Richter, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

The group said its plan outlines a path to building two million rental units in less than a decade, effectively tripling the rate of home building.

Proposals include:

• Federal funding for deeply affordable housing, co-operative housing, and supportive housing, along with seniors’ housing and student residences, and doubling the relative share of non-market community housing;
• Reforming the National Building Code;
• Eliminating the GST/HST and changing capital cost allowance provisions on new purpose-built rental housing to incentivize construction;
• Creating property acquisition programs for non-profit housing providers to help purchase existing rental housing projects and hotels, and facilitate office-to-residential conversions;
• Creating a Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit to provide immediate support for people at risk of homelessness;
• Reforming the Canada Housing Benefit to better support individuals and families with the greatest housing needs; and
• Providing low-cost, long-term fixed-rate financing for constructing and upgrading purpose-built rental housing.

The National Housing Roundtable said it is calling on the federal government to work with all orders of government, along with builders, developers, non-profits, and the higher education sector to urgently implement its recommendations. It also encourages all political parties to support and agree to a bi-partisan policy accord to provide confidence to investors and the housing market. It said the National Housing Accord was designed by industry leaders from across the housing spectrum and was brought together by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and REALPAC and was facilitated by the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute.

“Rents have been increasing faster than inflation across much of Canada, as the population of renters grows faster than the stock of rental housing. To house a growing population, to restore affordability, and allow workers to live in the communities in which they work, we need a substantial increase in the supply of purpose-built rental units. The National Housing Accord provides the federal government with an ambitious but achievable blueprint to create the housing Canada desperately needs,” said Dr. Mike Moffatt, Founding Director, PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, for each of the past 13 years, the average monthly rent on a 1-bedroom apartment has increased at or above Canada’s 2 per cent inflation target. To restore affordability to Canada’s housing market, 5.8 million homes must be built in the next seven years, roughly two million being purpose-built rental units. Most of Canada’s existing purpose-built rental stock is over 40 years old, said the group.

The National Housing Accord full report can be found here.

Mario Toneguzzi

Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)