Enough is enough! Canada’s housing crisis has reached catastrophic proportions and it is only getting worse. Summon landlord CEOs + DATA to House of Commons TODAY!

In September 2023, Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate stated in Prioritizing people over profit is the way forward on the housing crisis – The Star Calgary (excerpts):

•  “…Canada’s housing crisis has reached catastrophic proportions and it is only getting worse…One thing is certain:  we cannot count on the for-profit housing industry to fix the problem. It is up to the federal government to take the lead on creating housing that prioritizes people’s human right to housing over profit. Investing in nonmarket housing is the way out of the housing crisis…
• …Some argue governments need to make it more enticing for developers, corporate owners and large landlords to build new housing.  However, using public funds to create incentives for the private sector with no strings attached is not the answer.  Preferential interest rates, tax breaks, and waived fees have only contributed to profits at the expense of most Canadians.  This doesn’t mean the private market has no place in building housing in Canada. But any investment of public money must result in public good. Public money should support nonmarket housing – co-operative, non-profit and public housing – that is permanently affordable and accessible.
• A recent Scotiabank report and the National Housing Accord suggest expanding nonmarket supply by 655,000 units doubling the stock from 3.5 per cent to 7 percent of all total units.  It is a good start, but we need to set our sights higher. 
• If we want to address the existing crisis, 4.2 million units of housing need to be nonmarket housing.  This would represent 20 per cent of all housing units in Canada.  That proportion will need to be sustained over the long term with continued government investments.
• The reasoning is simple. Analysis of housing need in Canada, led by housing expert Carolyn Whitzman*, shows 20 per cent of households have incomes so low, the level of affordability they need is less than $1,050 per month.  The ultimate goal is a sustainable housing system.  Where non-profit housing communities are an attractive choice because they offer something for everyone. 
• The key ingredient to get there is a human rights approach that puts people first over profit.  We must prioritize housing that is safe, healthy and affordable for everyone. We must prioritize housing for people with disabilities, seniors and families. And it must remain affordable in perpetuity, so we don’t find ourselves here again in 20 years.
• This is a complex problem that requires many solutions. All levels of government have a role to play in funding nonmarket housing.  And the federal government has a responsibility to lead the way.
• To start, the National Housing Strategy’s $82-billion suite of programs should change course to prioritize the construction of nonmarket housing.  The federal government can create a fund for nonmarket and Indigenous housing providers to buy, repair, and operate existing buildings. And lastly, the federal government must attach conditions to federal infrastructure funding that mandate the creation of nonmarket housing in new housing projects. 
• …Canada has recognized that housing is a human right.  The government has an obligation to prioritize human rights over private interests, so that our housing system works for everyone. The way forward to people over profit. The way forward is respecting the human right to housing. The way forward is nonmarket supply…”  [Emphasis added]

Please write/call Federal/Provincial/Municipal politicians TODAY to summon the financialized landlords + DATA to the House of Commons to LOWER RENT-GOUGED RENT and to account for practices fostering the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY in Calgary, across Alberta and across Canada. Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate stated the following on May 9, 2023 during her testimony before the House of Commons HUMA Committee Review of financialization of housing, rent gouging, renovictions, and related issues:

• “I also urge the committee to call industry witnesses to account for their practices that undermine housing affordability, security of tenure and habitability, with data about their strategies and their profit margins.”

See my CHANGE.ORG petition entitled:  Require landlords to appear at House of Commons Review of Financialization & Rent Gouging  - with UPDATES.

See my letter dated October 17, 2023 to ALL Levels of Government requesting that a HOUSING EMERGENCY  (The City of Calgary Regular Council Meeting November 7, 2023 MINUTES - DOCUMENT Distrib-Public Submissions 3-C-2023-1148 pages 21 to 29) – in my CHANGE.ORG UPDATE dated November 24, 2023.

Also see further BELOW for MORE information regarding the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY in Calgary, across Alberta and across Canada - and some CONTACTS you may wish to CALL/WRITE to summon the financialized landlord CEOs + DATA to the House of Commons TODAY.

We can do this together! 

Spread the word!

Anne Landry

Calgary, Alberta

EMAIL:  Info@CalgariansForHousingRights.ca

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Information regarding the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY in Calgary, across Alberta and across Canada:

1.  Prioritizing people over profit is the way forward on the housing crisis – The Star Calgary – September 7, 2023.

• See also:  Put people first to solve the housing crisis. – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate – November 22, 2023. “…We are in this mess, in part, because Canada ended it social housing program in the 1990s. The thinking was that if government got out of the way, the private market would step in to build more homes – the more homes they built, the cheaper they would be.  This has not worked…”  
• On National Housing Day – November 22, 2023 - the Federal Housing Advocate, Marie-Josée Houle made a public statement entitled:  Put people first to solve the housing crisis “…Meanwhile, the for-profit housing industry is making money at the expense of Canadians.  We cannot count on them to fix the housing crisis.  It can no longer wait.  The federal government needs to urgently take the lead on creating housing that prioritizes people’s human right to housing over profit.”

 And as referred to ABOVE.

2.  ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE:  THE HOUSING CRISIS IN CANADA.  The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate’s 2022-2023 Annual Report to the Minister.  “…Developing mechanisms to definancialize ownership…Suspending state subsidies and support to financialized landlords…. Developing enduring rent controls and tenant protections…” (page 21)  [Emphasis added]

3.  Federal Housing Advocate’s Preliminary Recommendations – Submitted to the Review Panel on Financialization of Purpose-Built Rental Housing – August 31, 2023.  “…[Financialization or purpose-built rental housing] results in violations of individuals’ enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing, in particular the elements of affordability, habitability, security of tenure, accessibility, availability of services, appropriate location and cultural adequacy…Its impacts disproportionately affect people and communities that are Indigenous and/or those that are Black, racialized, immigrants and refugees, persons with disabilities, seniors, 2SLGBTQ+, low-income, and other disadvantaged groups, particularly women and gender-diverse people within these groups; It contributes to the erosion of affordable rental housing stock, and to growing socio-spatial inequality and polarization, which is contrary to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing in Canada, and amounts to retrogression…”  (including at page 2) [Emphasis added] 

4. Presentation of Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate on May 9, 2023 and on May 16, 2023 before the House of Commons HUMA Committee Review of financialization of housing, rent gouging, renovictions, and related issues.  “I think it's a multipronged approach. Stop the loss, curb the financialization, make it less profitable and give opportunities for non-market actors to acquire.” [Marie Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate on May 16, 2023  in response to question by MP Mr. Tony Van Bynen: “What recommendation do you have, or which one are you suggesting would have the greatest impact for the government to consider?”]

5. Federal Housing Advocate’s final report calls for national response to the crisis of encampments – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate – February 13, 2024.  “…Encampments are not a safe or sustainable solution for housing. For people living in encampments, every day is a matter of life and death. Encampment residents are at dire risk of harm due to governments’ failure to provide the necessities of life and the services needed to protect their physical and mental health – including access to water, food, sanitation, and heating and cooling, accessibility supports, healthcare and harm reduction services. Meanwhile, encampments exist because of a larger, systemic failure to uphold the right to adequate housing. A lack of affordable housing, limited support services, and nowhere safe to go means a growing number of people are having to live in tents to survive….”  [Emphasis added]  See:  Upholding dignity and human rights:  the Federal Housing Advocate’s review of homeless encampments – Final Report  - Canadian Human Rights Commission – February 13, 2024

6.  Corporate investment in housing linked to unaffordable rents, evictions and long-term care deaths:  study – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate – September 8, 2022.  “Today, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate released a series of research reports that explore the growing trend of financial firms using housing as commodity to grow wealth for their investors. Private equity firms, pension funds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs) are increasingly acquiring, operating, and developing housing as an investment strategy, with the aim of maximizing returns for shareholders. This phenomenon, known as the financialization of housing, is not only driving house prices out of reach for middle-class families – it is also denying members of disadvantaged groups their fundamental human rights…” [Emphasis added]

7.  *Housing is a direct federal responsibility, contrary to what Trudeau said. Here’s how his government can do better. – The Conversation, Carolyn Whitzman, University of Ottawa and Alexandra Flynn, University of British Columbia - August 7, 2023. “The production of non-market housing fell off a cliff in 1992 when the federal government downloaded responsibility for affordable housing to the provinces…Private rental construction dropped precipitously after 1972 when the federal government cut back on taxation incentives. The housing crisis has its roots in the federal government’s neglect of affordable housing over decades…Provinces and municipalities must step up.  The final priority the federal government should consider is using conditional agreements for infrastructure funding to encourage other levels of government to do more.  Provincial and territorial welfare rates and minimum wages don’t match housing costs. Insufficient provincial funding for health and social supports has put federal rapid housing initiatives at risk. Provinces must improve residential tenancy protections to stop the rising tide of evictions and double-digit rent increases. Municipalities need to revise zoning codes to allow four- to six-storey buildings in all residential areas and 10- to 30-storey buildings close to rapid transit stations.  Municipalities must stop making it harder for multi-unit housing to be built. Barriers, including placing restrictions on how many units can be built, setting parking requirements, imposing onerous development charges and elaborate design requirements, must be eliminated.  By amending the federal building code, municipalities could scale up smaller, affordable, accessible and energy-efficient apartment buildings with family-sized units. Rather than passing the buck for housing, the federal government must take the lead on affordable housing supply, the most pressing issue Canadians are facing today.” [Emphasis added] 

8. *HART Housing Needs Assessment Tool – reveals the Affordable Housing Deficit by household income grouping and priority populations by community, province and for Canada.  In Calgary, over 50,000 households need housing at $1,262 per month or LESS; and priority populations in Calgary in CORE HOUSING include single mother-led households (20.92%), household head over 85 years (18.53%), household head under 25 years (16.19%), refugee-claimant lead household (16.04%), Black-led household (15.09%), Indigenous household (13.40%), and others - Calgary Census Division, Census 2021.

9. The housing crisis is a planning crisis – CIBC Economics IN FOCUS, Benjamin Tal  – February 6, 2024.    “…CMHC’s 3.5 million housing gap by 2030? Try 5 million….That significant forecasting/planning gap is a direct result of the fact that currently there are no credible forecasts, targets, or capacity plans across governments for non-permanent residents – the population which accounts for the vast majority of the planning shortfall.  That must change.” [Emphasis added]

10.  New report reveals that Canada is missing 4.4M affordable homes for people in housing need – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate - November 2, 2023.  See REPORT:  A Human Rights-Based Calculation of Canada’s Housing Shortages – Canadian Human Rights Commission, Carolyn Whitzman – November 2023.  “…Canada is currently missing 4.4 million homes that are affordable to people in housing need. The figures show a current deficit of 3 million homes for low and very low income households in housing need who can only afford less than $1,050 per month, and a further 1.4 million missing homes for moderate and median income households in housing need. The report projects that in addition to current needs, Canada will also need to add 9.6 million new homes overall in the next 10 years, with a third of this supply dedicated for very low to moderate income households.”  QUICK FACTS at https://www.housingchrc.ca/en/canada-is-missing-4-4-million-affordable-homes-for-people-in-housing-need  [Emphasis added]

11.  RETHINKING CANADA’S TARGET FOR 5.8 MILLION NEW HOMES BY 2030  - Steve Pomeroy, Industry Professor, Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC), McMaster University – February 2024. “…In June 2022, CMHC published a research paper (updated September in 2023) proposing that in order to restore housing to an affordability level it would be necessary to build 5.8 million new  homes by 2030, including an increment of 3.5 million homes over and above the total already anticipated…In fairness to the authors, they acknowledge that this is a theoretical analysis and sees 'proof of concept' for determining affordability.  Unfortunately, the overall 5.8 million, and additional 3.5 million increment have been taken out of context and is widely repeated by industry, the media, and the politicians as fact and the most desirable, if not the only, basis for designing policy…Housing supply is inherently inelastic and takes a long time to ramp up and respond to changes in demand, so managing the issue dictates a parallel response to address these demand pressures…While subsidies can assist in adding new targeted affordable housing supply, it is critical to concurrently manage the ongoing loss of lower rent units….Alongside expanded housing allowances, the risk of escalating costs caused by excessive rent increases must be management through stronger rent regulation…

...It is unfortunate that, governments at both the federal and provincial levels, reinforced by the CMHC supply analysis, have bought into the chronic undersupply argument, and responded only with a strong supply side bias (e.g. the Housing Accelerator Fund, removal of GST from new rental construction). They have indeed been led down this blind alley by the theoretical but unrealistic CMHC supply estimate. It’s time to revisit and update that assessment to develop realistic targets and actions to facilitate appropriate expanded supply together with a range of complementary measures to better manage demand…” [Emphasis added]

12.   It seems that Alberta is increasingly seen as the “poster child” for financialization of housing in Canada:  Housing advocates say big money is transforming rental markets. And Alberta could be a poster child – CBC – August 2, 2023. “… in 2020, University of Waterloo professor Martine August tallied up the publicly-traded investment companies in Canada and found that of the largest provinces, Alberta has the highest proportion of private multi-family apartment buildings owned by those companies — 24 per cent, compared to 10 per cent nationwide....

…At the School of Planning in Waterloo, associate professor Martine August specializes in housing financialization and led the background research for the hearings on behalf of Houle. [See https://www.housingchrc.ca/en/financialization-housing.] One of those reports says real estate investment trusts (REITs) went from owning zero rental suites in 1996 to nearly 200,000 in 2021, in part by buying up existing rental stock from the small-scale landlords who used to dominate Canada's housing markets….In general, she says housing investors seek out jurisdictions with weak or no rent control because it's easier to maximize value there. In Alberta, there is no cap on how much landlords can raise rents — though they can only increase it once a year.‘ There's fewer tenant protections in that province [Alberta] and that draws financial investors in because they can make more through their business strategy of raising rents on tenants,’ said August.” [Emphasis added]

13. National Housing Strategy Act, 2019 - “4. It is declared to be the housing policy of the Government of Canada to (a) recognize that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right affirmed in international law…” 

14.  The Right to Housing 101 – National Right to Housing Network – 2020  “…the government of Canada has committed internationally to ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goal…Adequate housing means more than four walls and a roof. Overall, the right to housing entitles everyone to live in peace, security, and dignity. The UN [United Nations] has also stated that a number of conditions must be met before housing can be considered adequate…".[including: Affordability; Accessibility;  Habitability; Security of Tenure; Location;  Availability of Services, Materials, Facilities & Infrastructure; and Cultural Adequacy.]  [Emphasis added]

15.  COVID-19  and the Right to Housing. Impacts and the way forward -  A/75/148 -   Report to 75th UN General Assembly by the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal:  “...Recovery measures should not be discriminatory and should leave no one behind…States should consider rent caps and subsidies for tenants and small landlords…States should constrain the role of private equity firms as landlords and improve rights and protections of tenants...” (Recommendations, page 4 – Emphasis added)

Some CONTACTS:

1.  Current Federal Members of Parliament - https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search

2.  Current Members of the Alberta Legislative Assembly - https://www.assembly.ab.ca/members/members-of-the-legislative-assembly

3.   Mayor Jyoti Gondek of The City of Calgary

Office of the Mayor, Calgary Municipal Building 800 Macleod Trail S.E. P.O. Box 2100, Station M, #8069 Calgary, AB Canada T2P 2M5  EMAIL: TheMayor@Calgary.ca

The City of Calgary Council - Municipal Building 800 Macleod Trail S.E. Calgary, Alberta - P.O. Box 2100, Station M Calgary, AB Canada T2P 2M5   

EMAIL addresses:

·        Ward 1 - Councillor Sonya Sharp - EMAIL:  Sonya.Sharp@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 2 - Councillor Jennifer Wyness - EMAIL: Jennifer.Wyness@Calgary.ca   

·        Ward 3 - Councillor Jasmine Mian  - EMAIL:  Jasmine.Mian@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 4 - Councillor Sean Chu - EMAIL:  Sean.Chu@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 5 - Councillor Raj Dhaliwal - EMAIL:  Raj.Dhaliwal@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 6 - Councillor Richard Pootmans - EMAIL:  Richard.Pootmans@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 7 - Councillor Terry Wong - EMAIL:  Terry.Wong@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 8 - Councillor Courtney Walcott - EMAIL:  Courtney.Walcott@Calgary.ca  

·        Ward 9 - Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra - EMAIL:  Gian-Carlo.Carra@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 10 - Councillor Andre Chabot  - EMAIL:  Andre.Chabot@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 11 - Councillor Kourtney Penner - EMAIL:  Kourtney.Penner@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 12 – Councillor Evan Spencer - EMAIL:  Evan.Spencer@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 13 – Councillor Dan Mclean - EMAIL:  Dan.Mclean@Calgary.ca

·        Ward 14 – Councillor Peter Demong - EMAIL:  Peter.Demong@Calgary.ca