Enough is enough! Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate has recommended to implement a multipronged housing approach – with immediate actions and ongoing strategies.
Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate presented before the House of Commons HUMA Committee Review of financialization of housing, rent gouging, renovictions, and related issues on May 9, 2023 and on May 16, 2023. She stated:
- “Canada will not be able to build our way out of this housing crisis. We are losing affordable housing units faster than we can build them… Financialization is one major contributor of this loss… Recommendations for government to consider] 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….Immediate actions, followed by long-term ongoing strategies to ensure adequate housing…” [Emphasis added]
Marie Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate stated this 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?”
A “multipronged approach” is necessary to IMMEDIATELY address the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY in Calgary, across Alberta and across Canada at a time of years/decades of lack of investment in housing by governments and the for-profit housing sector. Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate has stated that “…Canada’s housing crisis is of catastrophic proportions and it is only getter worse…we cannot count on the for profit housing sector to fix the problem…”
- An ENORMOUS HOUSING DEFICIT exists in Calgary, in Alberta and across Canada, including for the most vulnerable - due to the lack of investment in housing and due to the LOSS of existing affordable housing units faster than can be built as a result of treating housing as a for-profit commodity for investors (financialization of housing) and NOT treating first and foremost as a HOME, a basic HUMAN RIGHT as per the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019. 5.8 million to 9+ million homes are needed in Canada by 2030. See Enough is enough! Canada’s housing crisis has reached catastrophic proportions …we cannot count on the for-profit housing industry to fix the problem. See also: CMHC forecast underestimates population rise and housing need, economist warns – The Globe and Mail – February 21, 2024
- INADEQUATE: The Business Council of Alberta has revealed that increases in population in Alberta are NOT being matched by increases in housing completions: in Alberta, demand outpaces supply by at least 2 to 1 - for every two new households moving into the province, only one new home is being built. Also, 43,799 additional community units needed in Alberta by 2030 to reach the OECD average 7% of total housing stock. See The Impact of Community Housing on Productivity – by Deloitte for the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) and Housing Partnership Canada – November 27, 2023 - REPORT (including pages, 26 39 to 42) & POLICY BRIEF.
- TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. The City of Calgary’s Economic Outlook Fall 2023 (Table 2) reveals the enormous housing gap in Calgary that is fostering Calgary’s growing HOUSING EMERGENCY: in 2023 Migration – 33,100 persons + household formation – 15,600 units but only 14,200 housing starts. See also: White: New housing initiatives are too little, too late – Calgary Herald – January 26, 2024: “Another 19,000 Calgary households will need public housing by 2025. But only 5,100 such homes are due in the next three years …After unveiling its housing plan, the City of Calgary quickly sold three sites to affordable housing agencies at below market prices to create 100 new public housing homes by 2027. However, the City must sell 30 sites each year for the next seven years to achieve 3,000 new public housing starts annually. How realistic is that?” [Emphasis added]
- “FAILED BY DESIGN”: It seems that the Alberta Government’s so called “Stronger Foundations” affordable housing strategy is grossly inadequate to meet housing demand: only 13,000 NEW “affordable” housing units are planned to 2032 for all of Alberta. The Alberta Government’s flawed housing strategy has largely ignored renters who are approximately 30% of households in Calgary as well as in Alberta (Census 2021): the Alberta Affordable Housing Review Panel excluded Primary Market Housing in its Terms of Reference. Disturbingly, Alberta’s flawed affordable housing strategy aligns rent of the most vulnerable to 10% and 30% below average market rent and is NOT solely based on household income – as per the CMHC standard definition of affordable housing. “Affordability definitions tied to out-of-control rents are fundamentally flawed” – see Fact Check: Affordable rental housing isn’t affordable – Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, The Monitor, Ricardo Tranjan - August 25, 2021.
- LARGELY IGNORED the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY: The Alberta Government seems to have largely ignored the growing HOUSING EMERGENCY revealed in The FINAL Report of the Alberta Affordable Housing Review Panel by SHS Consulting – October 5, 2020 (at page 12): “…Without immediate action, the number of Albertans in core housing need could grow to as high as 260,000 by 2031. Some population groups face an ever-greater risk of being in core housing need. For example, the Panel heard that vulnerable Albertans with disabilities spend up to 60% of their income on housing needs due to limited accessible housing options in the province…” [Emphasis added]
- “HAVE A HART”: The HART Housing Needs Assessment Tool is the emerging standard in Canada for housing build – including for low- and moderate-income households and priority populations – and reveals how desperate the HOUSING EMERGENCY is and the need for IMMEDIATE action to address it: in Canada 1,120,650 households need $1,050 per month or LESS; in Alberta 133,335 households need housing at $1,200 per month or LESS; in Calgary 50,890 households need housing at $1,262 per month or LESS (Census 2021). NOT 1 MORE affordable housing unit can be LOST. It seems that governments and landlords are NOT referring to the affordable housing deficit revealed by the HART Housing Needs Assessment Tool .
A “multipronged approach” recognizes that it necessary to incent the outcomes desired – NOT to just incent HIGH & INCREASING PROFITS of the landlords which may NOT be spent to build NEW affordable housing supply or paid out for much needed maintenance of aging rental buildings and which can come at the expense of rent-gouging tenants out of their homes. Simply put, a “multipronged approach” is the RIGHT THING TO DO – RIGHT NOW.
A “multipronged approach” to housing recognizes that it is NOT enough to just build NEW HOUSING SUPPLY – or even the to build the RIGHT HOUSING SUPPLY as recommended by the HART Housing Needs Assessment Tool that is the emerging standard in Canada for builds for the low- and moderate-income households and priority populations.
A “multipronged approach” to housing also addresses the DEMAND side of housing by PROTECTING the rights of people to adequate housing under the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019 and international law, including the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. This includes protecting the existing supply of adequate, affordable, accessible housing – to keep the rental units affordable, eliminate rent-gouging and keep the rental units appropriately maintained.
1. STOP the LOSS. Affordable housing is being lost faster than we can build it due to financialization of housing treating housing as a for-profit commodity and NOT first as a HOME, a basic human right. Research reveals that for every 1 affordable housing unit that is built, 15 affordable housing units are lost – primarily due to financialization of housing: Why Canada needs a non-market rental acquisition strategy. – Focus Consulting, Steve Pomeroy - March 2020. Also, see in Updating analysis on erosion of lower rent stock from 2021 census – Steve Pomeroy - October 2022. “The loss of affordable housing in Canada is occurring at such a high rate that it will be impossible for current NHS [National Housing Strategy] initiatives to maintain, never mind expand, the net stock of low-rent units research shows…” Also, see in Steve Pomeroy’s BRIEF dated May 2023 to the House of Commons HUMA Committee Review regarding financialization of housing, rent gouging, renovictions and related issues > which was also provided as a BRIEF to the National Housing Council Review of financialization of purpose-built housing. Also, see in 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, pages 7, 1 : “ …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…” Have you noticed that governments and landlords seem to regularly NOT even mention the LOSS of affordable housing – including as may be identified by the HART Housing Needs Assessment Tool?
2. Curb the financialization of housing
- 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]
- Marie Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate has recommended: “…Developing mechanisms to definancialize ownership…Suspending state subsidies and support to financialized landlords…. Developing enduring rent controls and tenant protections…” [Emphasis added] See in ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE: THE HOUSING CRISIS IN CANADA. The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate’s 2022-2023 Annual Report to the Minister, page 21.
-·The United Nations has recommended: “…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...” See in 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 (Recommendations, page 4 – Emphasis added)
3. Give opportunities for non-market actors to acquire. Marie-Josée Houle has stated in Prioritizing people over profit is the way forward on the housing crisis – The Star Calgary – September 7, 2023
“…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…”
See also my CHANGE.ORG petition UPDATE entitled: Enough is enough! Canada’s housing crisis has reached catastrophic proportions.
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 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 petition UPDATE dated November 24, 2023 entitled Summon Landlord CEOs + DATA to House of Commons TODAY! LOWER RENT-GOUGED RENT & MORE!
Also see further BELOW for some CONTACTS you may wish to CALL/WRITE to summon the financialized landlord CEOs + DATA to the House of Commons TODAY.
Please sign my CHANGE.ORG petition entitled: Require landlords to appear at House of Commons Review of Financialization & Rent Gouging - with UPDATES.
We can do this together! Please spread the word!
Anne Landry
Calgary, Alberta
EMAIL: Info@CalgariansForHousingRights.ca
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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