The federal government has set out on a path to solve the housing crisis, with bold investments and ambitious targets outlined in Budget 2024 and their new housing plan. This week’s budget promised $8.5 billion in new spending on housing, complemented by as much as $55 billion in financing – these investments are promising to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031.ÌýÌý
The impact of the new housing measures should not be underestimated – this is the most ambitious housing plan by the federal government in 50 years and will set Canada up to address the housing crisis over the long-term. We are encouraged by the Government’s adoption of many of the recommendations from the , which laid out a multi-sector roadmap to solve Canada’s rental housing crisis.
The housing plan takes a multi pronged approach to solving the housing crisis, with investments and policies that will incentivize and speed up the construction of both market and non-market housing. New policies such as reforms to tax measures for housing and the availability of low-cost financing were recommended by the Accord and will help put Canada on a path to reaching the 3.5 million homes needed to restore affordability. Ìý
The advocacy work of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and our supporters has kept »Æ¹Ïapp on the Government’s agenda. CAEH notes that there are important investments in the Government’s housing plan and in the federal Budget directed at alleviating »Æ¹Ïapp over the long-term. The $1 billion investment to stabilize Reaching Home, $250 million for housing-focused responses to encampments and unsheltered »Æ¹Ïapp, and $50 million to support communities adopt best practices and accelerate reductions in »Æ¹Ïapp will have a tangible impact on community efforts to prevent and end »Æ¹Ïapp. Ìý
But over the coming months and years, while the new affordable housing gets built, we are particularly worried about the wave of new »Æ¹Ïapp growing across the country, and the lack of supports in place to help people experiencing and at-risk of »Æ¹Ïapp today. For those at risk of losing their home, direct supports are the most cost-effective way to keep them in their housing and stop them from becoming homeless. A Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit would do just that, and is a necessary tool to stop growing »Æ¹Ïapp until Canada has fixed the housing crisis and restores affordability for all.
Across the country, communities are seeing new »Æ¹Ïapp, including among asylum seekers, who are finding themselves in municipal shelter systems in the absence of a comprehensive refugee and asylum seeker resettlement system. The $1.1 billion announced in Budget 2024 to extend the Interim Housing Assistance Program is a necessary measure in addressing this situation, and the federal government must continue to work with all levels of government to quickly deliver the community-driven solutions needed to support the housing needs of asylum seekers. Ìý
The federal government has set a clear intention to solve the housing crisis and has created the conditions to address it. Now, with growing rates of »Æ¹Ïapp, Canada must also set a clear intention to prevent and end »Æ¹Ïapp by developing and implementing a Federal Strategy to End Homelessness. As the federal government seeks to build a fairer Canada for all, it must set out an ambitious plan to end »Æ¹Ïapp and deliver the solutions needed to build a housing system that works for everyone. Ìý