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.

IN THE NEWS: CanIndia - Trudeau announces $2B for creation of nearly 17,000 homes, new 5-year rent to own stream

“The housing supports announced today were secured by New Democrats for everyday people as part of the supply and confidence agreement. While this is good news for Canadians, we know that more needs to be done to help families afford to keep a roof over their heads. Since 1993, the housing crisis has been ignored by Liberal and Conservative governments who abandoned federal affordable housing programs people relied on. It’s wrong that families who need help now have been ignored by decades of Liberal and Conservative governments,” Kwan said.
“New Democrats will continue using our power to push the Liberals to make life more affordable for everyday people. This means pushing to reverse Liberal and Conservative cuts by restoring the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s role in building social and co-op housing. We will continue to fight for meaningful investments that address the urgent homelessness crisis in communities struggling with encampments. It also means pushing the Liberals to ensure immediate relief to renters who need it and crack down on investors treating housing like a stock market instead of a human right,” she added.

MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals must do more to help Canadians find a home they can afford

“Canadians are paying sky-high prices for rent and struggling to find a home they can afford. The NDP continues to push the Liberal government to fix the housing crisis and get people the help they need...
New Democrats will continue using our power to push the Liberals to make life more affordable for everyday people. This means pushing to reverse Liberal and Conservative cuts by restoring the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s role in building social and co-op housing. We will continue to fight for meaningful investments that address the urgent homelessness crisis in communities struggling with encampments. It also means pushing the Liberals to ensure immediate relief to renters who need it and crack down on investors treating housing like a stock market instead of a human right.

IN THE NEWS: CTV - Trudeau announces funding for 17,000 new homes

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan wrote in a statement Tuesday the initiatives announced by Trudeau were the result of the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement, and she called on the federal government to do more to help make housing affordable.
“This means pushing to reverse Liberal and Conservative cuts by restoring the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s role in building social and co-op housing,” Kwan wrote. “We will continue to fight for meaningful investments that address the urgent homelessness crisis in communities struggling with encampments. It also means pushing the Liberals to ensure immediate relief to renters who need it and crack down on investors treating housing like a stock market instead of a human right.”

UBCIC JOINT LETTER: Urgent Housing Crisis Emergency

Follow-Up Open Letter Re: Urgent Housing Crisis Emergency
We write you with renewed urgency about how the ongoing national housing crisis affects residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). The dire and life-threatening situation facing unhoused people will not resolve without federal leadership and immediate intervention and we plead for your action. The situation is a mounting human rights crisis as governments are failing to ensure the right to safe dignified shelter to those most in need and requires an urgent distinction and rights-based approach.

OPEN LETTER: Urgent Housing Crisis

As you know, the lack of access to safe, secured affordable housing in Vancouver has been a longstanding challenge. This was brought on by the cancellation of the National Housing Program in 1993 and the lack of action by successive federal governments to invest in the development of social housing. The pandemic in the last 2 years and the current heat wave has further exacerbated the situation. The latest available data indicates there are currently over 2,000 identified homeless individuals in the city, and a disproportionate number of them identify as Indigenous.
In my previous correspondence with you, I have outlined the seriousness of the housing crisis in Vancouver and called for federal action. Today, I am reiterating calls for action.
Since 2018, we have seen in our community, large scale homeless encampments erected by the unhoused, first in Oppenheimer Park, then in Crab Park, followed by Strathcona Park. In August of 2020, I issued a joint open letter with MLA Mark and Mayor Kennedy calling for the federal government to urgently address the housing crisis by entering into a 50/50 cost sharing agreement with the province to build more supportive housing and acquire new housing stock

Open Letter to Federal Housing Minister on urgent housing crisis

I am therefore calling on the federal government to re-establish the Vancouver Agreement – a tripartite initiative that brought all levels of government together to support social, economic and community development in Vancouver, with a specific focus on the Downtown East Side.  We need an urgent and concerted effort between all levels of government working in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations to address the challenges in our community, with urgent interventions to find safe housing and supports for people in crisis, and long-term systemic solutions to address the needs of the community.  The status quo simply cannot continue.

IN THE NEWS: Van Sun - Ottawa bumps up social housing funds for shortchanged B.C.

Two years ago, NDP MP Jenny Kwan protested that the federal Liberals were directing less than one per cent of their social housing budget to B.C., despite the province being home to 11 per cent of the nation’s population.
The stark imbalance has improved since Kwan aired her complaints.
“Since exposing that B.C. only got 0.5 per cent of the funding, I’m glad to report that more funds have begun to flow to B.C.”

Are you ready to take action?

Constituent Resources
Mobile Offices
Contact Jenny

Sign up for updates

Vancouver Constituency Office

Email:
Phone: 604-775-5800
Address:
2572 E Hastings
Vancouver, BC, V5K 1Z3

Ottawa Parliamentary Office

Email:
Phone: 613-992-6030
Address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
(postage-free)