Canada faces a severe housing crisis. The federal government has unveiled two major initiatives over the past six years aimed at encouraging more homebuilding. Yet most rental housing remains beyond the reach of many very-low-, low-, moderate- and median-income households. Homeownership is even more out of reach. This report argues that the best way to improve this is a co-ordinated approach that combines mechanisms available to all levels of government. 

Key findings

• Neither federal government initiative adequately targets the 'deep housing affordability' required to end homelessness and inadequate housing among very-low- and low-income households.
• Three million households need deeply affordable housing supply and 
• An additional 1.4 million need affordable housing supply.

Recommendations

• All levels of government should provide land leases on well-located, vacant and underused government-owned land.
• The federal government should focus on providing long-term low-interest financing and startup grants to double the stock of non-market housing.
• Provincial governments should offer rent subsidies and services for supportive housing that helps individuals with special needs who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness to find and maintain stable housing.
• Municipalities should focus on zoning reforms and tax incentives to reduce costs for non-market housing developers.
• Moreover, all levels of government should adopt clear, consistent, income-based definitions of 'affordable' and 'deeply affordable' housing across programs. 
• This would allow governments to set clear priorities and would permit a stacking of grants provided by different levels of government while enabling the monitoring of results against set targets.