Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to participate today as your committee studies the important issue of housing affordability.

My area of expertise pertains to the crisis related to rental housing for low-income households. I'm the principal investigator in two Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded projects focused on issues related to public policy to address poverty and inequality. Housing is the central focus of our work.

In collaboration with university researchers and housing advocates from across the country, we are examining the crisis in low-rent housing and potential solutions. The housing crisis that we now face has been building for a very long time and it won't be easily solved.

The solution begins with a fundamental shift in thinking about housing as a societal foundation rather than as a means to accumulate wealth. Housing is among the most basic of needs that, if not met, lead to a host of social and economic problems that affect us all.

The challenges Canada faces regarding access to affordable housing are not unique. Many nations with similar levels of economic wealth are dealing with this issue. However, some nations are more successfully tackling it. These nations are recognizing that the decades-long experiment of trying to solve public problems such as housing for low-income households through profit-motivated means have failed. These countries are scaling up investment in social housing, having learned that the private market simply does not produce good-quality housing that is affordable to the lowest-income households.

When examining rental market needs, it is important to note that although housing demand is outpacing supply, rental housing is being built; however, the rental housing that is most needed is not. CMHC reports that across Canada, rental affordability for the lowest 20% of income earners is especially challenging. Rental housing affordable for these households is virtually non-existent in urban centres. With a few exceptions, the rental market share that is affordable for low-income households is less than 5% in major centres. It's 1% in Vancouver and near non-existent in Ontario cities. Units that are available are typically bachelor or one-bedroom, and these are inappropriate for families.

At the same time that almost nothing is being built for low-income renters, the supply of existing low-rent units continues to shrink, with a loss of more than 300,000 units between 2011 and 2016 alone. This trend is exacerbating the desperation of low-income renters and revealing a serious flaw in public policy that has been built on the notion that the private market will fix this problem, even though decades of evidence shows that it will not.

Canada is lagging behind other OECD countries that have recognized the importance of social, non-market housing as part of a broader housing strategy. Canada ranks 20th among OECD countries in terms of the percentage of social rental dwellings as the share of the total number of dwellings. The OECD average is almost twice as high as the rate in Canada. Clearly, we can do much better.

Housing researchers look to the 1980s as a period of significant change and the beginning of the crisis we are now in. The federal government backed away from its commitment to social housing in the 1990s, and private developers moved away from purpose-built rentals. The current low-rent supply has led to soaring rents, even in jurisdictions with rent controls, which have typically been seriously weakened. Special tax treatment for real estate investment trusts continues to fuel the financialization of housing, further entrenching a culture of housing for investment rather than for a home.

In 2017, the Government of Canada implemented its national housing strategy with the primary goal “to make safe and affordable housing accessible for the most vulnerable Canadians and for those struggling to make ends meet.”

The strategy has failed to produce the housing needed for the most vulnerable renters, largely because it has focused almost solely on subsidizing the private market. It is notable that a mere 3% of units funded through the national housing strategy's largest program are affordable to low-income renters. The rapid housing initiative created during the pandemic has been more successful, but it is far too small a program to have had an impact. It needs to be expanded.

Through research and dialogue with colleagues, advocates and precariously housed people from across the country, we have determined that essential to solving this problem for those who are most vulnerable is an immediate expansion of social housing. Our research consortium is calling on the Government of Canada to work in collaboration with other levels of government to invest in adding a minimum of 30,000 net new social housing units annually over 10 years, with rents that are no more than 30% of household income in perpetuity, starting in budget 2024-25.

We are also calling on the government to invest in the acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance of new and existing public, non-profit and co-operative-owned housing that meets the unique and varied requirements of people experiencing core housing need and homelessness.

Thank you.