On November 22, 2017 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government announced a National Housing Strategy aimed at addressing affordability problems in the Canadian housing system, primarily among low-income households.
The Liberal strategy aims to add 100,000 new affordable units to the Canadian housing system and lift 530,000 families out of core housing need.
Recent census data shows that in 2016 1,775,570 rental households spent more than 30% of their income on shelter (a common measure of affordability). Of these households, 282,825 were living in subsidized housing and 1,536,740 were not.
Clearly, the need exceeds the supports that will roll out over the next 10 years therefore targeting of some kind will be necessary. One rationale could be the prioritization of households with children. A recent Statistics Canada report showed that 1.2 million Canadian children live in low income households representing almost 1/4 of all low income individuals. This approach could make a significant impact as far as reducing child poverty is concerned.
Joggerfry 