1. The Issues
  2. 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.

Hill Times: Build Canada Homes is ‘duplicating the bureaucracy’: NDP critic Kwan slams feds’ new affordable housing entity


The launch of Build Canada Homes, the new federal entity which will oversee affordable housing starts on federal lands, is an “extremely disturbing” step, says NDP MP Jenny Kwan, pointing to an existing federal body already capable of overseeing affordable housing initiatives.

“Better late than never, but boy oh boy, the Liberals have been asleep at the wheel for at least the last 10 years if they haven’t realized … you need to work in partnership with the non-profit sector, with the private sector, with provinces and territories in utilizing federal lands,” said Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s housing critic, of the new agency.

Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) announced the creation of Build Canada Homes (BCH) on Sept. 14 saying it would come with an initial investment of $13-billion, and a mandate to “build affordable housing at scale” by overseeing affordable housing builds on federal land.

Click link to read the news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/09/20/build-canada-homes-is-duplicating-the-bureaucracy-ndp-critic-kwan-slams-feds-new-affordable-housing-entity/473963/

Householder Fall 2025

The new Parliament met from May 26 to June 20, 2025. In that time the new Liberal minority government presented a Throne speech and introduced eight Bills.

The Throne Speech is supposed to lay out the government’s priorities in a new Session of Parliament. But it was notable not so much for what was in it as for what was missing.

During the election campaign, of course, people were talking about their concerns with respect to President Donald Trump, his tariff threats and anti-immigrant actions. While people said Canada should absolutely take action together in dealing with the United States, there were also so many other top priority issues that the government ignored in their throne speech.

There was no mention of renters. In the midst of a housing crisis - there was no discussion of building the social housing or co-op housing that is so desperately needed. What’s even more concerning is the fact that, when asked if housing process need to go down, the Minister of Housing - Gregor Robinson said “No.”(link: https://www.jennykwanndp.ca/ctv_new_housing_minister_says_he_ll_leverage_his_past_as_vancouver_mayor_in_new_role?recruiter_id=111).

There was no mention of funding for public transit, nor any mention of desperately needed support for mental health or action to help people secure a family doctor. There was no mention of action to mitigate and fight wildfires or provide relief for affected people. No mention of foreign interference. No mention of peace and resolving conflict. No mention of the devastating crisis in Gaza. Seniors and their concerns were not mentioned in the throne speech.

Women were not mentioned in the throne speech. Issues surrounding gender equality and equality for people with disabilities were not mentioned in the throne speech.

You can see my response to the throne speech at this link: https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/house/sitting-6/hansard#Int-13081121

Despite not having party status, I was able to successfully move a sub-amendment to the Throne speech by ensuring that the rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected. New Democrats will keep pressing the government – and all opposition parties – to live up to this promise.

NDP Media Release: The feds must protect renters from financial landlords now

“Building on a recent media article about a new study by Martine August and Cloe St-Hilaire from the University of Waterloo’s Planning Department, the research reveals that financial landlords — including real estate investment trusts (REITs), publicly traded property firms, and asset managers — file eviction applications at significantly higher rates than any other type of landlord. These corporate entities are evicting nearly 1 in 9 tenants each year, highlighting how legislative loopholes have contributed to a growing housing crisis.

Housing is a human right, not a luxury for investors to make quick profits. We cannot allow large financial firms, similar to the ones that Prime Minister Carney used to work for, to continue treating people’s homes as commodities to be bought and sold for maximum profit. The alarming rise in evictions is a direct consequence of the financialization of our housing market — and it’s time for that to end.

The Housing Minister, Gregor Robertson, must bring in legislation immediately that ensures:

  • No more corporate takeovers: We must place a moratorium on the purchase of residential properties by big financial landlords. We can’t allow real estate companies to keep pushing working families and low-income Canadians out of their homes.
  • Empower communities: We need to create a national acquisition fund to help non-profit organizations, housing co-ops, and community land trusts purchase rental buildings — so we can keep homes affordable for generations to come.
  • Control rents: Bring back national vacancy control. No more speculators jacking up rent prices between tenants. Rent prices need to stay fair, stable, and predictable.

We need federal policies enacted immediately that protect renters across the country while new affordable housing is waiting to be built under Canada Homes.”

CHCH News: More tenants upset with living conditions of Hamilton apartment building

Looking through the Lankin Investments website, the Pulis connection that ties it all together can be found and connected to the company’s founder and CEO Kyle Pulis.  According to his own bio, he successfully has over $2 billion in assets under his management.

CHCH News tried to reach out to the company to get a hold of him, but was told by one of its employees that it would be difficult.

And inquiries to the federal housing minister, would be answered by Monday.

“These financialized landlords, what are they in for?” says NDP Housing Critic Jenny Kwan.

They’re in it for making profits, they don’t care about their tenants and in fact, many of them, what they want to do is let the buildings run down and let the tenants out because once they force the tenants out, they can jack up their rents, because that’s how they increase their profit even greater,”

Click link to watch the tv news:
https://www.chch.com/chch-news/more-tenants-upset-with-living-conditions-of-hamilton-apartment-building/

CTV: New housing minister says he’ll ‘leverage’ his past as Vancouver mayor in new role

The Canadian Press asked Robertson if he felt home prices need to go down to restore affordability.

“No, I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable,” he said.

When asked the same question Tuesday, Carney said that while there are things Ottawa can do now to help with affordability — such as cutting the GST on new builds for first-time buyers — the long-term solution is to boost supply.

Click link to read the news story - https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/new-housing-minister-says-he-lacked-tools-to-tackle-homelessness-as-vancouver-mayor/

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