Ottawa, ON – With the average asking price for rental housing in Canada recently reaching new record highs, Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice is proposing a new housing solution.
Morrice believes Canadians would be shocked to learn that 70% of units built through the $15 billion federal Affordable Housing Fund are not required to have any affordability criteria at all. The remaining that do, don’t even meet the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) own definition of affordability.
“After three decades of under-investment, it’s all the more worrisome that such a large percentage of so-called federal affordable housing funding is going towards housing that isn’t actually affordable,” said Morrice. “This isn’t rocket science, affordable housing funding should result in housing folks can afford.”
Endorsed by housing policy experts, Morrice’s Private Members Motion 170 would overhaul the affordability criteria for federal housing investments so they result in affordable housing – something that isn’t currently the case.
When looking at CMHC’s affordability criteria, only 3% of units created or under construction in the $55 billion Rental Construction Financing Initiative, renamed the Apartment Construction Loan Program, meet CMHC’s own definition of affordability for those in core housing need.
For over 35 years, the federal body responsible for distributing federal housing dollars has defined housing as affordable when the occupants spend no more than 30% of their pre-tax income on shelter costs.
Instead, the CMHC uses six different affordability criteria across programs, based on variable measures that have become increasingly inflated as the housing crisis worsens – like 80% of Median or Average Market Rent.
Morrice is calling for a simple solution: creating unified criteria for both deeply affordable and affordable housing, based on both the income of renters and CHMC’s own definition of housing affordability, and applying them consistently to ensure that federal investments result in affordable housing.
It's a solution housing policy expert Dr. Carolyn Whitzman calls for in her most recent publication with the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
“The basic question for housing policy is ‘who needs what housing where and at what cost?’”, said Dr. Whitzman. “From the 1940s to the 1980s, the federal government steered housing outcomes with a clear, income category-based definition of affordable housing in all programs. This was, from the 1970s onward, 30% of before-tax household income, with programs aimed at low and moderate-income Canadians – people facing homelessness and newly formed households with key worker jobs like nurse, teacher – and construction worker.”
Dr. Whitzman says Canada needs to work backward from what very low to median-income households can afford towards policies that can realize the right to housing for all Canadians.
Homelessness expert and associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Dr. Erin Dej, agrees, saying “The Federal government has made a commitment through the National Housing Strategy to prioritize housing for people in greatest need. This motion is an important step to reaching that objective. Without a revised definition of housing affordability that is linked to a household's before-tax income, federal investments in housing will not achieve their goal of supporting housing for people who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness."
At a time when average rents in Waterloo Region have increased 70% in ten years, with ODSP’s shelter allowance increasing just 16% in the same period, "measures like Average or Median Market Rent are entirely irrelevant to folks relying on ODSP who are looking for housing they can afford,” said Allan Mills, Executive Director of Extend-a-Family. “They'd like to be able to pay rent and buy groceries in the same month.”
A newly released point-in-time count yesterday showed the number of people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region has more than doubled to 2,371 during the past three years.
"Housing inequality and the wealth gap continue to grow in Canada, and those experiencing mental health and/or addiction issues continue to be forgotten. We commend MP Morrice for developing this motion and we support him in asking government to recognize the need, and adopt language, for deeply affordable housing," said Eric Philips, CEO of Thresholds Homes and Supports.
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For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Rosalind Horne - 226-749-2198
Director of Staff - Office of MP Mike Morrice
Full Quotes
Dr. Carolyn Whitzman - Adjunct Professor and Senior Housing Researcher, School of Cities, University of Toronto, author, Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis (UBC/ On Point Press, 2024)
“The basic question for housing policy is ‘who needs what housing where and at what cost?’. From the 1940s to the 1980s, the federal government steered housing outcomes with a clear, income category-based definition of affordable housing in all programs. This was, from the 1970s onward, 30% of before-tax household income, with programs aimed at low and moderate-income Canadians – people facing homelessness and newly formed households with key worker jobs like nurse, teacher – and construction worker.
In a 2023 report for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, I found six definitions of ‘affordable housing’ in current federal programs! We need to work backward from what very low to median income households can afford towards policies that can realize the right to housing for all Canadians.”
Dr. Erin Dej - Homelessness Expert and Associate Professor of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University
“The Federal government has made a commitment through the National Housing Strategy to prioritize housing for people in greatest need. This motion is an important step to reaching that objective. Without a revised definition of housing affordability that is linked to a household's before-tax income, federal investments in housing will not achieve their goal of supporting housing for people who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness. We are in a housing and homelessness crisis in Canada, with a 20% rise in homelessness in the last four years. Many people are experiencing homelessness for the first time because they cannot make ends meet. Responding to this crisis requires immediate and bold steps that will help Canadians access housing that they can afford and ensures that investments are reaching the people who need it most.”
Eric Philips – CEO, Thresholds Homes and Supports
"Housing inequality and the wealth gap continue to grow in Canada, and those experiencing mental health and/or addiction issues continue to be forgotten. We commend MP Morrice for developing this motion and we support him in asking government to recognize the need, and adopt language, for deeply affordable housing."