Dreams and Realities on the Home Front: Canadians’ Call for Government Action on Housing Affordability

Housing has been a priority concern for Canadians, particularly those living in the most unaffordable urban centres across the country, for years, before the COVID-19 pandemic led to economic shocks and inflationary pressures across the economy. Since the mid 2010s, the increased rate of housing price inflation have sent rent and house prices sky-high. Since 2023, housing affordability has become one of the hottest political issues in Canada. As more and more Canadians struggle to find a place to call home, political parties are defining themselves around their response to this pressing issue.

Housing is a social good, like public healthcare, and is recognized as a human right in Canada under the federal government’s 2019 National Housing Strategy Act. Despite this, since major federal funding cuts in the 1990s, the federal government itself had largely divested itself from housing, contributing to today’s crisis.

Together with the Broadbent Institute, we have publsiehd a report about Housing Affordability in Canada. The survey was conducted by the Viewpoints Research Institute in the British Columbia Lower Mainland and the Greater Toronoto & Hamilton Area (GTHA), which are two of the most unaffordable housing markets in the country. 

You can access the full report ­here.