Affordable Housing and Homelessness

Across this country, we have an affordable housing crisis.

People are living in tents. People are “couch-surfing”. Home ownership is all but a dream for many.

Imagine what our communities would look like if an additional half a million units of affordable housing were built across this country.

The reality is that families, individuals, single parents and seniors alike are unable to obtain safe, secure, and affordable housing. This is a very real struggle for so many in Vancouver East and across the country. This national problem is of crisis proportions and is steadily worsening. For example, 2018 statistics for the City of Vancouver showed the highest number of people living homeless since the first regional homeless count in 2005. Indigenous peoples face even larger barriers to securing safe affordable housing, and accounted for 40% of the homeless people living in the region, despite being only 2.2% of the overall population. These numbers are unacceptable, because each number represents people in our community who are in crisis.

Our current housing crisis started in 1993, when the Federal Liberals cancelled the National Affordable Housing Program.

As a result, this country lost out on half a million units of affordable housing that would otherwise have been built.

The impact is real and significant. I have met school children who tell me that they are worry about their housing situation. Women who were fleeing domestic violence are left with no choice but to return to the abuser because she cannot secure housing. Families had their children apprehended for no other reason other than the fact that they could not meet their housing needs. The homeless population are becoming more desperate. In one instance, I learned that a fight broke out because people were fighting for awning space in an attempt to stay dry as heavy rain poured down. It is high time for government to deliver what so many across the country have called for – a National Affordable Housing program.

Housing is a human right
Speech delivered on January 31, 2019 in favour of the NDP Motion to take immediate action on Canada’s Housing Crisis.

HANSARD: Speech in response to the Spring Economic Update

*Click [ Read more ] to read Jenny's full speech

House Video: Speech in response to the Spring Economic Update

On Monday May 25 2026, NDP MP Jenny Kwan responded to Prime Minister Carney's Spring Economic Update & Bill C-30, the Spring Economic Update Implementation Act.

*Click image to watch the video

Vancouver Sun: Ottawa pulls funding to program matching Lower Mainland wheelchair-users with accessible homes

For full-time wheelchair-users in the Lower Mainland, the ability to live independently has often hinged on one thing: finding accessible housing.

For Vancouver’s Mark Cody, 44, life was once confined to the parts of his apartment that he could physically reach.

Article content
Cody lost the use of his legs after a missile strike while in Baghdad, Iraq. He spent years unable to bathe himself or leave his house until a program connected him and his wife, Zoey, with an accessible two-bedroom apartment in 2023 — making it possible for them to start a family.

Speaking Wednesday inside the Harmony Building in Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, clients of Disability Alliance B.C.’s right fit program stood alongside Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan to draw attention to the program’s closure after a recent $500,000 cut in federal funding through Reaching home: Canada’s homelessness strategy.

Article content
About a dozen wheelchair-users attended the news conference. Many held signs reading: “Save the right fit program.” Some were visibly teary-eyed.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://vancouversun.com/news/ottawa-pulls-funding-to-program-matching-lower-mainland-wheelchair-users-with-accessible-homes

HANSARD: Restore funding for the Right Fit program

National Post: Minister says new housing agency has no targets on number of homes it will build

OTTAWA — Housing Minister Gregor Robertson tabled legislation on Thursday to establish the federal government’s new affordable housing agency, but acknowledged Build Canada Homes has no set targets on how many homes it will build.

In December, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report that estimated the agency’s efforts would result in 26,000 directly funded units over the next five years. The federal government has said the report does not take into account the units that will result from Build Canada Homes’ partnerships with private developers and its $51-billion infrastructure fund.

Still, the PBO estimates federal spending on housing programs is set to decline by 56 per cent, from $9.8 billion in 2025-26 to $4.3 billion in 2028-29, due to expiration of funding for existing programs and cuts set out in Budget 2025.

“Canada’s non-profit housing stock has dwindled to only about four and a half percent of its total housing stock, well below the G7 average,” said NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan, in an interview with the National Post. “Countries that are doing well in addressing the housing situation is sitting at about 20 per cent.”

Click image or link to read the news story - https://nationalpost.com/news/minister-says-new-housing-agency-has-no-targets-on-number-of-homes-it-will-build

CBC: Government tables bill giving Build Canada Homes land acquisition power

The federal government introduced legislation that would enshrine its housing agency as a Crown corporation on Thursday, giving it land acquisition authority as well as the ability to partner with private developers — as questions remain over the number of units it intends to build.

The Conservative Party, which has previously been critical of Build Canada Homes for adding a layer of bureaucracy to homebuilding, did not indicate whether it plans to support the bill.

"The legislation was just tabled. I look forward to studying it in detail and I look forward to discussing with colleagues and I look forward to participating in the debate," said Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who represents the Edmonton-area riding of Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan criticized the bill for not defining the term "affordable housing," also noting in a statement it "grants extraordinarily broad powers to Build Canada Homes, allowing it to finance and partner with virtually any person or entity, acquire and develop land, own and operate housing and invest in third-party ventures, all with minimal constraints and limited parliamentary oversight."

She also said turning the agency into a Crown corporation "removes accountability from the minister of housing."

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-homes-crown-corp-9.7076495

Hill Times: Housing Minister Robertson ‘well regarded’ for municipal background, but needs a vision for housing, say sector experts

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s housing critic, told The Hill Times that Build Canada Homes has no minimum requirements for affordability in its projects, and that only the six sites that the government has announced will achieve affordability.

“Without setting specific targets at Build Canada Homes, there is no guarantee of affordability in future projects. According to CMHC [the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation], to retain housing affordability at 2019 levels, 430,000 to 480,000 new housing units need to be built annually over the next decade,” said Kwan in an emailed statement on Jan. 22. “CMHC will be cut by $860-million per year according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The government should commit to increasing Canada’s share of non-market housing to a target of 20 per cent nationally to make truly affordable housing available to all. The Liberal and Conservative approach of relying on the private market has consistently failed to bring down costs. Build Canada Homes is no different.”

The Hill Times reached out to Robertson to ask about housing and measures to address the housing crisis, including Build Canada Homes and Bill C-4, but did not receive a response by press time.

Kwan said she and Robertson “get along personally, but that’s irrelevant to the housing crisis that Canadians face from coast to coast to coast.”

“Build Canada Homes was supposed to signal a ‘new era’ of federal action. But the PBO shows it will produce only 26,000 units over five years—a 2.1 per cent bump in completions when we need transformative investment. The prime minister talks about doubling housing construction, but the PBO is clear: there is no roadmap, no strategy, no coherent plan to deliver it,” she said in the email. “We need real federal leadership that takes a continuum-of-housing approach—sustained public investment, non-market housing at scale, and a commitment to treating housing as a human right, not a speculative asset.”

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2026/01/28/housing-minister-robertson-well-regarded-for-municipal-background-but-needs-a-vision-for-housing-say-housing-experts/489512/

Nunatsiaq News: New Democrats do Nunavut

The federal NDP caucus met in Rankin Inlet last week for its winter retreat. The party’s MPs were treated to Nunavummiut hospitality, endured blizzards and heard about the challenges of living in the North, interim party Leader Don Davies said in an interview Monday.

“I’ve spoken to a few people who said that when you go North, you start falling in love with it,” he said.

It was the Vancouver-area politician’s first time in Nunavut. Davies has been interim NDP leader since the party’s former head Jagmeet Singh lost his House of Commons seat in last April’s election.

New Democrats are expected to choose a new leader at a convention in late March.

Generally, the NDP holds a caucus retreat a week before a parliamentary sitting. For this year’s winter retreat, its MPs chose Rankin Inlet. Parliament resumed Monday, following a six-week break that began before Christmas.

One purpose of the retreat is to get to know the people and places that make up their constituencies, Davies said.

Members spent the week meeting with community leaders and members.

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout couldn’t attend the first day because a winter storm prevented her plane from landing, she said Monday.

Her fellow MPs sat for several presentations she said were “received very well” and that helped inform them about “some of the realities that Nunavummiut experience,” Idlout said.

Davies said the issues faced by the rest of Canada seem to be “experienced more acutely in the North.”

“Learning about the history, the traditions, the pride of the Inuit, and everybody else who has made the North their home was really striking. It was eye-opening,” Davies said.

“We have housing problems in the rest of Canada, but nowhere else, I don’t think, is it as serious as we experienced in Rankin.”

Nunavummiut homes are often overcrowded. Residents told MPs they had been on housing waitlists for more than 10 years, Davies said.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/new-democrats-do-nunavut/

Island Social Trend: NDP MPs visit Nunavut ahead of 2026 House of Commons session

Before heading back to Ottawa for the upcoming session of the House of Commons, several New Democrat MPs spent a few days in Rankin Inlet to meet with Nunavummiut and hear directly from them about their priorities.

“I am proud to welcome my NDP colleagues to Nunavut, and for them to see firsthand the issues northerners are facing,” said NDP MP for Nunavut, Lori Idlout.

She hosted three MPs whose ridings are in BC: NDP Leader Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway), Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni).

“New Democrats are committed to hearing from community members and working with them to bring solutions to Ottawa,” said Idlout in an NDP news release on January 19.

“Throughout the country, families are facing a lack of affordable homes, high cost of food, and a need for more family- and community-sustaining jobs,” said Davies.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://islandsocialtrends.ca/ndp-mps-visit-nunavut-ahead-of-2026-house-of-commons-session/

The Hub: Trump says corporations are buying up homes. Is it happening in Canada?

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to block institutional investors like Blackstone and Invitation Homes from buying up single-family homes, he spurred renewed interest from Canadians wondering if giant hedge funds are also buying up homes in this country, contributing to the ongoing housing crisis.

On January 7, Google Trends showed the top search queries in Canada related to Trump were tied to his single-family homes decree and how that related to the Canadian real estate market. The fringe People’s Party of Canada X account claimed “foreign multinationals” were buying up homes in Canada. Popular YouTuber Moose on The Loose posted a video with over 144,000 views claiming corporate ownership of homes has driven up the prices of homes in Canada. NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan alleged that we are witnessing the “financialization of housing” in Canada, calling for a moratorium on corporations purchasing new properties.

But what’s the actual truth? And what’s the current situation in Canada when it comes to investors buying up real estate and contributing to driving up housing costs?

Affordable Housing