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: Why Canada must protect the existing affordable housing stock

OPINION | BY NDP MP JENNY KWAN | January 31, 2024

Affordable housing across Canada is being lost at a seriously alarming rate; not to alien abduction, as the leader of the official opposition sarcastically wondered, but to housing profiteers who care most about their bottom line. These investor-landlords are looking to maximize their profits by buying older rental apartments and often displacing long-time tenants by renovicting or demo-evicting them to jack up rents.

Housing expert Steve Pomeroy has said that Canada lost more than 550,000 units of affordable housing between 2011 and 2021, which represents a loss of 11 units for each new affordable housing unit built. In cities like Vancouver and Toronto, the rate is even more drastic. Worse yet, Winnipeg and Hamilton, Ont., are losing 29 units of affordable housing for each new one. When Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were in power (with Pierre Poilievre at the table), 800,000 affordable homes were lost as corporate landlords bought in bulk while renovicting or demo-evicting low-income tenants, and the Affordable Housing Initiative was axed. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have lost another 276,000 affordable homes to developers.

Open Letter to Vancouver Mayor and Council: Human Rights and Respect for the Unhoused

Park Rangers had moved to decamp the unhoused in Oppenheimer Park. This effort follows a series of previous actions from the City to further displace the unhoused without a plan in place to house them. Shelters are at maximum capacity, people have no where to go and their meagre possessions were being confiscated, and their tents being dragged away in front of them.

This week we are seeing the temperature drop to -13 Degrees Celsius in Vancouver. These individuals are living in tents for survival. This decision will only put their lives further at risk. I find it unconscionable that anyone could support displacing marginalized people, and confiscating what little they have, when they have no homes to go to.

I am sure you are aware that the 2023 Point-in-Time Homeless Count for Greater Vancouver show that there is a 32% increase since the last count in 2020, and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately represented. This is the latest in a failed string of actions – decampments, street sweeps, and evictions. This approach is neither collaborative nor productive – it serves only to trample the human rights and dignity of our most vulnerable residents, hoping that their needs can be swept under a rug if they are displaced to a less visible part of the city.

Media Release: NDP secures major investment in housing for indigenous peoples

OTTAWA — On Wednesday, New Democrats used their power to force the Liberal government to invest in a For-Indigenous/By-Indigenous housing strategy for First Nations, Métis and Inuit living away from their home community.

A few days after Pierre Poilievre’s cut-and-gut Conservatives voted to cut funding for homes for Indigenous peoples, the NDP is delivering critical funding, and a For-Indigenous/By-Indigenous Centre responsible for channelling the funds through both national and regional Indigenous-led housing organizations. Through the Confidence and Supply Agreement, the NDP used their power to secure $8.3 billion in total federal funding to address the urgent, unmet housing needs of Indigenous people living in urban, rural and northern areas. This includes $4 billion dedicated to community distinctions-based funding and $4.3 billion for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people living away from their home community.

Globe: Mayors push for more funding following disappointing government fall economic statement

NDP MP Jenny Kwan took issue with the fact that even the $1-billion in funding that was in the update is not budgeted until after April 1, 2025.

“People are living in tent encampments, being evicted from their homes or trapped paying sky-high rent and the Liberals continue to delay and disappoint in their fall economic statement,” she said during Question Period, describing the funding timeline as “absurd and completely out of touch.”

Mr. Fraser responded, saying existing programs are currently available.

“What we’ve done in the fall economic statement is demonstrate our long-term commitment,” he said.

Media Release: The Liberals are Still Out-Of-Touch with Canadians in Need of an Affordable Home

“The Liberals are out of touch with Canadians struggling to find a home they can afford. They just handed six parcels of federal lands to wealthy private developers and only a small fraction of the homes that will be built will be deemed affordable.

We are in the midst of a housing crisis. Rent is through the roof. In St. John's alone, 2000 households are on a waitlist for affordable housing, and another 10,000 in Edmonton. In many cases, Canadians are having to make impossible choices – some end up sleeping in their cars or on the streets because they can’t afford a roof over their heads. Homelessness is on the rise across the country.

Canada needs at least 2 million non-profit homes. The Liberals making once again the bad decision of putting profits over building affordable homes will be harmful for people.

Immigration.ca: Public Support For Immigration To Canada Falls Amid Financial And Housing Crises

Immigrants Should Not be Blamed for the Housing Crisis

MP Jenny Kwan commented on the increasing blame being put on immigrants for the housing crisis at the recently-conducted Meeting No. 78 of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

She said that the housing crisis is a result of successive Liberal and Conservative governments’ failed attempts at establishing a successful housing plan, and not because of immigrants.

HANSARD: If there is to be true reconciliation, there needs to be investments commensurate with need for Indigenous people on reserve and off reserve

VIDEO: CPAC Special - 2023 NDP Convention - Interview with MPs Jenny Kwan and Laurel Collins

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and Laurel Collins (Victoria) speak with CPAC’s Michael Serapio on the final day of the federal party's policy convention in Hamilton, Ontario. The MPs face questions on challenges facing their party, and what they can learn from their provincial counterparts on organizing and winning elections.

Kenora Online: NDP pushing the Grits on housing

Housing continues to remain a hot topic in the House of Commons.

In response to a question from the NDP, Housing Minister Sean Fraser admits the GST rebate on new builds is not enough on its own.

"We're going to continue to make investments in low cost financing to build more homes that ordinary people can actually afford. We've advanced programs in the past and will continue to in the future to directly subsidize the kinds of homes low income people need to build."

Meanwhile theNew Democrats are pushing for an acquisition fund for the non-profit sector to stop the loss of low cost housing to profiteering.

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan notes the failings of previous governments have led to dire straits.

"The average rent in Canada is now over $2100 a month, in Vancouver its over $3000, time for bold action."

The Liberals say there must be an increase of availability in the market and have the government encourage the construction of both low and mid-income housing.

Affordable Housing