I recently co-published a piece with Jacqueline Gahagan, Associate Vice President of Research at Mount St. Vincent University, on The Conversation about the National Housing Strategy (launched in 2018): “Canada’s National Housing Strategy: Is it really addressing homelessness and affordability?” (November 16, 2022). Among our observations are:
- core housing need (a composite measure that includes suitability, adequacy, and affordability) has remained constant since 2016
- affordability among the lowest income groups has not improved, as most units built through NHS programmes are not affordable
- the Rapid Housing Initiative is the only NHS programme to result in units that are affordable according to CMHC’s threshold of 30% of a household’s pre-tax income
We also discuss this particular affordability measure and how it compares to the OECD indicators for housing affordability.
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