“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.
Statement from NDP Housing Critic Jenny Kwan on Federal Housing Advocate's Report
After a recent damning report from the Parliamentary Budget Office critiquing the policy design of Build Canada Homes, the Federal Housing Advocate’s report today exposes major additional gaps in the Federal government’s housing policies, revealing that the government has allowed homelessness to escalate while relying on inadequate, short-term fixes. Across Waterloo, London, Hamilton, and Toronto, the Advocate heard consistently that people living in encampments face unsafe shelters, inaccessible housing, and constant threats of eviction. These conditions are the predictable outcome of inadequate policy development, underfunding, and enforcement-first approaches that criminalize survival.
The report’s recommendations make clear what needs to be done. Federal investments must be expanded and sustained with a human rights-based approach, including meaningful engagement with encampment residents, municipalities, and Indigenous organizations, and evaluation of programs like the UHEI to ensure lessons inform future strategies. Adequate pathways out of encampments require scaling up deeply affordable and supportive housing, integrating health care, and protecting people from forced evictions that exacerbate trauma and risk, especially during extreme weather.
The report also emphasizes the urgent need for culturally specific and trauma-informed Indigenous supports, gender-responsive housing, and protections for refugee claimants. Community organizations must be empowered and resourced rather than monitored and penalized. All federal housing initiatives, from Build Canada Homes to the National Housing Strategy, must embed a human rights framework, set clear outcomes, and provide sustainable funding to ensure real change along the continuum of housing, including setting clear targets of 40 percent of housing set to 30% of income.
Canadians are witnessing the consequences: lives put at risk, and systemic inequalities entrenched. The Prime Minister and Housing Minister cannot continue to defer responsibility. They must act immediately to align federal policy with human rights, expand investments, end criminalization, and commit to long-term, trauma-informed solutions that actually meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness. I call on the Prime Minister and Housing Minister to follow through immediately on the recommendations from these two reports.
