Speaking to Canada’s mayors at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big City Mayors’ Caucus on May 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government’s intentions to introduce an infrastructure plan which aims to incentivize the creation of affordable housing across the country. The new plan will launch in the fall and follows an approach similar to Trudeau’s $15 billion transportation plan announced two years ago, by tying federal investments in municipal infrastructure projects with municipalities’ commitments to create affordable housing. The announcement was positively received by housing advocates, with some advising to put safeguards in place to encourage public investments in non-profit housing developments. The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights’ (CCHR) Director of Policy and Communications, Bahar Shadpour, told CBC that while we are in support of the plan, municipal and provincial regulations are needed to protect the existing affordable stock from “investors piggybacking on government investments”.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its Annual Report for the year 2022 in early May, highlighting results on its portfolio of investments as well as its housing policy, research, and innovation programs. While CMHC’s net loss was higher compared to the previous year, progress has been made on two of the agency’s flagship initiatives. The Rapid Housing Initiative was renewed for a third round, putting Canada on track to build over 14,500 secure and affordable homes for people experiencing homelessness, while also working on the design of the new Housing Accelerator Fund to help municipalities fast-track housing development approval processes. For 2023, CMHC will be focusing on a strategy to improve housing for Indigenous peoples.
At the beginning of June, the province held a summit in Saint John to discuss ways to tackle the housing crisis with over 160 housing stakeholders, ranging from community groups and non-profit organizations to builders, developers, homeowners, educators, and students. The province’s Minister responsible for Housing, Jill Green, said she will use the information shared during the discussions to develop a housing strategy within six weeks. Outside the Convention Centre where the summit was held, ACORN advocates called on the Minister for stronger rent regulations and renoviction policies, in light of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants’ Rights report on affordable housing loss, released prior to the summit. The report shows that the number of units priced at or below $750 per month has decreased by 25% over a five-year period, while at the same time the number of units on the higher end of the market doubled, if not tripled. Advocates are calling for stronger rent protections for the existing affordable stock, such as reinstating rent caps. While the Minister remained vague about plans to include rent controls in the design of the new provincial housing strategy, stronger renovictions protections were introduced shortly after the summit.
The Dalhousie Legal Aid Service (DLAS) and other housing advocates are calling for more funding for legal services for low-income tenants who are at risk of homelessness. The number of renters seeking out free legal help to deal with evictions has reached the point where DLAS was forced to halt its walk-in service during the month of May. While there is a 2% cap on rents, landlords can increase the rent at their discretion between tenants, and many are trying to get around the rent cap by offering fixed-term leases and carrying out evictions for renovations. These tactics are leaving low-income tenants struggling to keep their homes and in need of legal supports.
At a Council meeting on May 10, the City of Toronto approved a new policy to allow for mid-rise residential housing in neighborhoods traditionally dominated by detached and semi-detached homes. This move could transform up to 70% of the city’s residential land known as the “yellow belt”. The new framework allows new multiplexes to be built up to three storeys high in low-density areas, and up to four storeys high in areas where taller buildings are already present, under the condition that the design of the new development is integrated to the surrounding environment’s physical features. The City should report back to Council with a review of the impacts after the delivery of the first 200 multiplex building permits. Council also requested that staff report back at a later date on the feasibility of deploying an incentive program to subsidize one affordable unit for each multiplex.
Bill 25 was introduced on May 9 by Caroline Proulx, Minister of Tourism, following the deaths of seven people in March due to a fire in an Old Montreal heritage building that had been operating illegal short-term rentals on Airbnb. Bill 25 will amend Bill 100, which mandated the registration of homes for short-term rentals, but lacked compliance and enforcement methods. It will require a certificate for registration and puts the onus on Airbnb to ensure that its listings comply with property maintenance and safety regulations, with the threat of a hefty fine for unlicensed rentals. It has not yet been determined when the bill would come into effect, but its introduction has been well-received from numerous organizations, including Fairbnb Canada which stated that the province-wide approach is exemplary because it unifies legislation for the whole province and provides the means to create a registry and enforce the regulations.
On May 29, over 100 government officials, advocates and lived experts convened in Winnipeg for the first-ever Homelessness and Poverty Symposium, held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Attendees discussed supports for mental health and addictions, and the need for deeply affordable housing options for low-income households.
The United Conservative Party (UCP) won the Alberta general election on May 29, taking 49 seats at the legislature, while the New Democratic Party (NDP) took 38 seats. The UCP remains confident in the 2021 provincial housing strategy “Stronger Foundations” and has not provided any new measure to address the issue of rent increases that has been felt across all urban centres in the province.
Calgary’s Housing and Affordability Task Force released a report with six key recommendations to address housing affordability. The Task Force is composed of senior City staff, researchers and housing providers from diverse sectors, and it held a series of closed meetings to review existing housing programs and provide direction to Council on housing matters. To increase affordable housing supply in the city, the Task Force recommended enabling faster development of housing across the city, increasing available land for non-market housing, and ensuring that the supply of affordable housing meets the needs of Indigenous peoples and equity-deserving populations. The Task Force will present the set of recommendations to Council on June 6, and the report recommendations should inform the City’s Corporate Affordable Housing Strategy, set to be reviewed at the end of the summer.
The province’s Housing Supply Act, which passed in November 2022, sets housing targets for municipalities to increase housing supply through densification. Under the Homes for People action plan launched in April, the government has committed an initial $4 billion investment to create density incentives, with an additional $12 billion pledged for the next 10 years. Incentives for municipalities include provincial funding for public amenities, upzoning, supportive housing and financial supports for renters. At the end of May, B.C.’s Housing Minister, Ravi Kahlon, shared the list of the 10 municipalities selected to test out the new housing targets. These municipalities will work with the provincial government over the summer to define the targets.
The Premier of the Northwest Territories, Caroline Cochran, tabled an interdivisional plan to support people experiencing homelessness and improve housing stability, saying a “whole-of-government approach is needed to adequately address homelessness in the territory.” The new strategy, “A Way Home”, includes the establishment of a dedicated unit to coordinate the work across departments, collaborating with community partners to improve access to services and increasing housing options, amongst other measures. The strategy aims to bring homelessness levels to a “functional zero” through a better distribution of shelter services across regions to keep people who are experiencing homelessness close to their communities and the social supports they need. The Premier hopes to establish the homelessness unit within the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs by October 2023.
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
The National Housing Council (NHC) published a report on the federal National Housing Strategy (NHS) where it found that Canada is losing affordable housing faster and in greater quantities than the amount that the NHS program is producing. To address the housing crisis, the NHC recommended that: 1) the NHS be better aligned with the rights-based goals articulated in the National Housing Strategy Act; 2) the Government of Canada focus more funding to increase the share of non-market housing; 3) the Canada Housing Benefit be enhanced; 4) a separate funding stream be established for Indigenous housing programs and; 5) the Government of Canada strengthen accountability and coordination within its government and with other levels of government to improve socio-economic, health and environmental outcomes for all.
Canada’s first Review Panel has been launched to examine the financialization of purpose-built rental housing. Through this process, the Review Panel will look at the impact of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing on the housing system and the right to adequate housing as well as the federal government’s role in addressing this growing issue. Written submissions can be made to the Review Panel from people affected by the financialization of housing, civil society organizations, experts in housing and human rights, and representatives from the purpose-built rental housing sector in Canada.
The Government of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission and Disability Rights Coalition have reached an interim settlement “towards a systemic human rights remedy to end the discriminatory treatment of people with disabilities.” After a court ruling that found the province’s treatment of persons with disabilities in need of supports and services amounted to systemic discrimination, the subsequent deliberations have resulted in a legally binding and enforceable arrangement that will create a system of social assistance that fully recognizes and respects the different needs of persons with disabilities. The government must now implement a five-year plan that will close all institutional settings for persons with disabilities and eliminate the waitlist for social assistance in five years.
A judge ruled that people living in encampments under the Ville-Marie Expressway can continue to do so until mid-June. This is the third ruling that protects the encampment residents from an eviction notice that Transports Québec first issued last November. However, Mobile Legal Clinic filed for injunctions with the hope that the government would come up with more sustainable and permanent housing options for the encampment residents to ensure that they are not left in a precarious housing situation. The case will return to court at the end of May when lawyers could request an extension if no alternative is found.
The Ontario government introduced Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, making this the fourth housing bill that the province is working to pass under the Housing Supply Action Plan since last year. If passed, some key planning amendments are intended to increase housing construction. For example, some more room is created to convert lands zoned for employment into residential uses by updating the definition of employment areas. Municipalities also stand to gain more flexibility in expanding their boundaries to accommodate future growth. Critics have noted the risk of this proposed change in perpetuating more sprawl. The province’s own Housing Affordability Taskforce earlier found that enough land was available to build more housing without having to increase municipal boundaries. The proposed legislation also includes more protections for renters from potential renovictions. Notably, landlords would now be required to provide tenants with a written notification about the status of renovations along with a report from a qualified person to verify whether the repair needs are so extensive that the unit has to be vacated. Tenants would also be given a 60 day grace period to move back in after a renovated rental unit is available. Bill 97 has been referred to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy. Public hearings will be held by the committee on May 10th and 11th, 2023. Specific comments related to proposed changes to help tenants from bad faith renovation evictions can be made here by May 21, 2023.
The Ontario government also opened up regulations related to Rental Replacement by-laws for consultation. Earlier, Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, empowered the province to regulate and prohibit municipal requirements for developers to replace redeveloped buildings with the same number of rental units as the older buildings that it converted at similar rents for a period of time. The regulatory changes that have since been proposed consist of a set of minimum requirements, limits and common rules such as the type of compensation that ought to be provided to tenants whose units are being converted. Feedback can be provided on the proposed changes by May 21, 2023 here.
The Manitoba government announced $3 million in new funding for seniors’ housing programs to help seniors safely age in place. From that amount, $1.5 million will be used to provide financial assistance to seniors over the age of 65 with household incomes of $60,000 with home modifications to enhance safety and accessibility and enable participation in daily activities. The remaining funds will be used to help strengthen and stabilize the province’s supportive housing programs by increasing the per diem rate to $50 per resident.
The Manitoba Government announced $3 million in new funding for seniors’ housing programs to help seniors safely age in place. $1.5 million will be used to provide financial assistance to seniors over the age of 65 with household incomes of $60,000 with home modifications to enhance safety and accessibility and enable participation in daily activities. The remaining funds will be used to help strengthen and stabilize the province’s supportive housing programs by increasing the per diem rate to $50 per resident.
ALBERTA
The Alberta government increases housing funding and the NDP release a housing plan as election season kicks off
As election season kicks off in Alberta, the NDP has released a housing plan that aspires to house 40,000 people over the next five years. The plan consists of several commitments including building 8,500 more social housing units with $1.5 billion in provincial investments, increased rental assistance for 20,000 Albertans from the 9,000 that currently receive it, and provision of predictable, consistent funding for shelter spaces. The United Conservative Party has not yet articulated its housing plans although it earlier increased its capital spending for affordable housing over the next three years by $200 million. At the same time, there are broader concerns about whether the province’s affordable housing strategy will benefit those most in need given its reliance on private entities to implement the strategy. Among voters, some point to housing affordability challenges that are making it difficult for them to find adequate housing options even as the province tries to promote affordability to attract more workers from other provinces such as Ontario.
The British Columbia government announced the “Homes for People” action plan, as part of ongoing efforts to tackle the province’s chronic housing problems. Key measures include allowing and incentivizing the construction of secondary suites, enabling more density across the province, further streamlining of local permitting systems to expedite housing development, using public lands to deliver affordable homes and introducing an anti-flipping tax to tackle speculation in housing. The measures are backed up by $4 billion in investments over the next 3 years with a 10 year commitment of $12 billion. The government is also implementing Belonging in BC, a plan that adds 3,900 supportive housing units and 240 complex-care spaces to prevent and reduce homelessness. For 2023, $1.18 billion has been budgeted for the initiative.
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
The federal government released its 2023 budget, which included $4 billion over seven years, beginning in 2024-2025, to implement an Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy, co-developed with Indigenous partners. The long-awaited strategy is welcome news, although it is not sufficient to meet the need recommended by Indigenous communities. The federal budget lacked any other housing affordability measures for renters to solve the housing affordability and adequacy issues faced by many across Canada. The budget includes a reallocation of funding from the affordable housing repair stream of the National Housing Co-Investment Fund to a new construction stream but does not boost funding for new social and affordable housing, nor does it increase funding for rental supports. Advocates had called for the introduction of a Canada Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit to expand the existing Canada Housing Benefit and prevent people from losing their homes. The Federal Housing Advocate noted that the budget fails to address the major systemic issues that are preventing the realization of the human right to housing in Canada, including action on homelessness and the financialization of housing.
The Nova Scotia government introduced a budget which provides $21.6 million for rent subsidies for 1,000 low-income tenants and $8.2 million for shelters. Local housing advocates pointed out that rent supplements are a useful tool but the lack of provincial investment in social housing will compound the lack of housing which tenants can afford. The budget included funding to repair existing social housing but not to construct or fund any new rent-geared-to-income housing in the province.
On April 11, the Nova Scotia government’s legislation to extend the current interim rent cap to the end of 2025 passed into law. The rent cap will also be increased from 2% to 5% annually, beginning in January 2024.The government stated that this amount was chosen to allow landlords to catch up to inflation, while avoiding any large rent increases for tenants. The provincial government first introduced the interim rent cap as a temporary measure in November 2020, in response to a housing affordability crisis that has escalated in recent years due to rising housing costs, the lack of affordable housing options for low-income households, and the lack of construction of rental housing which has not kept up with population growth. The rent cap was extended once before in February 2022. While advocates are relieved to hear that the rent cap will be extended again, they are concerned that the cap was increased to 5%, with some, like ACORN, calling for a permanent rent cap of 2%. Advocates are also concerned that the new legislation does not address a remaining loophole that allows landlords to misuse fixed term leases to get around the rent cap. Specifically, landlords can decide not to renew a fixed-term lease in order to rent a unit to a new tenant at an increased rent that is above the cap. Advocates are calling for provisions around fixed-term leases to be changed to close this loophole. Both the NDP and Liberal Parties have also proposed bills to address the issue of fixed-term leases.
Charlottetown City Council passed a licensing by-law for short-term rentals, which reflects the calls of housing advocates to curb the conversion of rental housing into units for short-term stays through platforms such as Airbnb. Advocates noted that allowing investors to buy rental units and convert them to short-term rentals severely reduced the availability of housing in the city. The by-law will restrict short-term rentals to the owner’s primary residence, in most cases disallowing multiple properties to be rented out by one owner. The by-law came into effect at the end of March 2023.
The Ontario government released its 2023 budget in March, which included several housing-related measures. The budget promised a $202 million annual investment in homelessness prevention and Indigenous supportive housing, as well as a three-year $24 million commitment to fund the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to address the backlog of cases before the Board. The homelessness prevention investment was welcome news but advocates were concerned that rather than represent an improvement, the funding would merely offset losses caused by development charge changes under the More Homes Built Faster Act. Tenant advocates were also concerned that funding for the LTB would only hasten economic evictions. In our budget submission, we had called for enhanced funding for affordable housing construction and preservation of existing affordable housing, as well as housing benefits to help renters struggling to make ends meet. The budget failed to include such measures.
Ottawa City Council unanimously passed their first budget under Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at the beginning of March. Housing advocates, including the Right to Housing Coalition Ottawa, had called for the City to double the funding set aside for affordable housing to $30 million to address inflation-driven construction costs and increased need in the community. While City Council did not increase the housing budget, a successful motion by Councillor Laine Johnson increased the budget amount of surplus city land to be sold from $1 million to $2.5 million, with the extra revenue to be directed to affordable housing.
Following years of advocacy from groups like Right to Housing Toronto (R2HTO), Toronto City Council supported the creation of a Housing Rights Advisory Committee, and authorized Ombudsman Toronto to set up a Deputy Ombudsman, Housing that would look into systemic housing issues. The new independent Deputy Housing Commissioner would be able to investigate systemic housing issues in the City’s housing policies and services with an equity and rights-based focus. The Commissioner’s office is fully funded and will engage in education and outreach, acting as a resource for City staff and officials in addition to evaluating City housing and homelessness plans. The Housing Rights Advisory Committee will be composed of 11 members of the public (plus one City Councillor) with policy and lived expertise in housing and human rights and should reflect the diversity of Torontonians.
The Manitoba government announced its long-awaited homelessness strategy, A Place for Everyone, which aims to improve services, increase coordination between departments and with other levels of government, and help people transition out of homelessness by finding and retaining housing. The strategy includes $58 million in new funding which will go towards shelters and programs for people experiencing homelessness, 300 new housing units and funding for another 400 units of rent-geared-to-income rent supplements, repair and maintenance of existing social housing, and programs to prevent youth leaving care from experiencing homelessness. While the new funding was welcomed by local advocates, they noted that a short-term commitment to new housing is unable to adequately address the severe loss of affordable units in Manitoba that has occurred in recent years, including the loss of hundreds of social housing units.
Saskatchewan introduced increases to assistance programs in the provincial budget, including a $17 million increase to the Saskatchewan Assured Income Disability (SAID) program, $6.4 million in living income benefits, $14.3 million for the Saskatchewan Income Support program – which includes the Adult Basic Benefit, Shelter Benefit, and Alternative Heating Benefit – and the Senior’s Income Plan. These increases amount to only $30 more for most recipients. Saskatchewan anti-poverty and disability rights advocates criticized the increase, pointing out that the original rates were already insufficient to cover basic needs, which is a problem that has only become more pronounced with the rising cost of living.
Nine of the 19 Northwest Territories Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) voted in favour of a motion by Great Slave MLA Katrina Nokleby to amend the Territory’s Residential Tenancies Act to limit rent increases to no more than the five-year average of the Canada Consumer Price Index. Cabinet MLAs abstained from the vote. The government has 120 days to respond to the motion, but the upcoming territorial election will likely prevent any action on the motion. If the next government introduces a rent increase cap, it will join a small number of provinces in Canada that have a rent guideline. The majority of provinces and territories limit how often landlords can raise the rent but do not set limits on the amount of rent increases, putting the stability of tenants’ housing at risk.
Canada is experiencing an affordable housing crisis. Rents have skyrocketed and renters are increasingly struggling to secure an adequate home that they can afford. In many instances, current provincial laws and policies have incentivized landlords to find ways to evict renters so they can charge higher rents for the next tenant. As a result, evictions are on the rise in many communities across the country.
Renters across Canada need access to secure homes that they can live in for the long term. It is the responsibility of our decision-makers to ensure that renters have protections to stay in their homes. In doing so, the human right to housing is an important framework that decision-makers can adopt to protect tenants’ security of tenure – the ability to keep their homes and be confident that their homes are secure. In fact, under Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Canada is obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to housing. The obligation to protect the right to housing requires that our governments create laws and enforcement mechanisms to protect renters from interference with their homes.
Specifically, eviction is only permitted under international human rights law if all the following are true:
The eviction must have a legitimate objective.
Eviction must be necessary to achieve the objective, and there must be no reasonable alternative.
The consequences of eviction must be proportionate to the objective.
This is because international law recognizes that, like other human rights, adequate housing is fundamental to human dignity. It can only be restricted in circumstances where the restriction is justified in a free and democratic society.
Provincial and territorial Residential Tenancies Acts partially protect renters’ right to housing. For example:
Landlords are prohibited from evicting tenants without following a legal process.
Landlords can only evict tenants for specific reasons, such as rent arrears or bad behaviour.
Landlords are required to meet basic maintenance standards and comply with other rules.
However, there are large gaps in the protections afforded by residential tenancies legislation, where Canada has failed to protect the human right to housing. To give just a few examples:
Some renters, especially some of the most vulnerable who live in shared rooms or transitional housing, are denied any legal protections.
Residential Tenancies Acts often allow landlords to evict tenants for their own convenience, such as to do renovations more easily.
Many provinces and territories have inadequate rent regulations, so landlords can effectively evict tenants simply by raising their rent to unaffordable levels.
Even where the law is intended to protect tenants, legal processes are often inaccessible or unfair, and consequences for delinquent landlords are not serious enough to deter illegal conduct.
Because of these and other failures, Canada is falling short of its obligation under international law to protect renters’ human right to housing.
How do we solve this issue?
To make housing security a reality in Canada, residential tenancies laws need to be updated and strengthened. To meet Canada’s obligation to protect the right to housing, we recommend that each province and territory amend its residential tenancies laws to:
Limit the reasons a landlord can evict a tenant only to issues that cannot be resolved by other means.
Strengthen rent regulations to protect tenants from economic evictions resulting from unexpected or excessive rent increases.
Strengthen the remedies available to tenants, and the consequences for landlords, when a tenant is illegally evicted.
Improve the accessibility, fairness, and expertise of residential tenancies tribunals.
Conduct a full review of residential tenancies laws to identify and close other gaps in tenant protections.
Everyone deserves to live securely in their home, whether they are a homeowner or rent their home. A secure home is necessary for living with dignity and for individuals to fully participate in their communities and the economy. It is our duty as a democratic society to ensure that everyone is protected from illegal, unnecessary, and unfair interference with their home.
Learn more about Canada’s obligation to the right to housing
This International Women’s Day, we are called to reflect on the barriers and biases that impede women from fully realizing their human rights; and importantly, to reflect on what we can do to break down these barriers and biases.
The right to adequate housing is a human right. However, women in Canada are often impeded from fully realizing this right due to policies and programs that do not consider their specific needs and circumstances. Last June, the National Indigenous Housing Network and Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network filed two Human Rights Claims to review the systemic denial of the equal right to housing of women and gender-diverse people, which spotlight the inherently systemic violations of the right to housing.
Critically, the Canadian government has relied on a narrow definition of homelessness, which excludes women’s experiences of gender-based violence and hidden homelessness. Definitions of “homelessness” and “chronic homelessness” used in government policy do not reflect the distinct ways women, girls, women-led families, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people experience homelessness. Definitions tend to be Eurocentric and fail to account for Indigenous ways of understanding and experiencing homelessness.
To fully realize the right to adequate housing, a broader definition of homelessness must be adopted.
That is why the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR), the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) and the National Indigenous Housing Network (NIHN) are calling on the federal government to expand its definition of homelessness to include the experiences of women and gender-diverse people, centering ways in which Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people define their homelessness. Our collective efforts to end homelessness must be inclusive of all experiences across Canada.
Support this call by sending a letter to the federal government.
Despite common perceptions that it is primarily men who experience homelessness, almost half of the people experiencing homelessness in Canada are women, girls and gender diverse people.
However, while housing and homelessness supports are generally framed in gender-neutral terms, women have unique needs and experiences in housing instability and homelessness. Women experience homelessness differently for two main reasons: (1) they frequently have different reasons for becoming homeless; and (2) they navigate homelessness differently. These experiences are tied to gender, and other group identities like race, ethnicity, disability, immigration status, social and economic status and gender identity etc. Based on these identities, women face multiple forms of marginalization.
In the context of inherent Indigenous rights, colonial policies and mechanisms attempt to displace Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people. The lack of action on the Calls to Justice from the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report and Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report has created a failure to provide safe, adequate, and culturally appropriate housing. The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) mentions the need for safe and secure housing more than 400 times.
Pathways to homelessness for women
Women commonly become vulnerable to homelessness due to poverty, lower wages, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse, addiction issues, mental and physical health challenges, and issues around childcare.
The Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey identifies that women disproportionately experience poverty and financial instability. Women in Ontario on average live on income that is 28% lower than the average income for men, are over-represented in minimum wage and part-time jobs, and assume unequal responsibilities in housework and childcare.
As a result, they face greater challenges finding adequate and affordable housing, leading many women to seek out housing that is unsafe, inadequate or unaffordable, and increasing their vulnerability to homelessness. CCHR has reported that more than a quarter of women-led households in Canada are in core housing need, while 90% of families using emergency shelters are headed by single women. This situation is made worse by the increased discrimination that women – in particular single mothers/parents, those receiving social assistance, those who are racialized, newcomers, Indigenous, or with a disability – face in accessing housing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women were disproportionately impacted by income and job loss due to their overrepresentation in part-time employment and in the sectors most heavily impacted by the pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the housing needs of women, who were less likely to have savings, and put them at a higher risk of experiencing homelessness. Racialized women experienced additional impacts as they earn approximately 58 cents for every dollar earned by non-racialized men and are more likely to work in lower-paying occupations.
Indigenous women, in particular, are overrepresented amongst women who are homeless, and are 15 times more likely to use a homeless shelter than non-Indigenous women. The 2019 MMIWG Report highlights that Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than any other group of women in Canada and are 16 times more likely to be murdered or missing than white women. A lack of Indigenous-led housing programs leads to unsafe living conditions, inadequate housing, unaffordability, and child apprehension.
Moreover, women account for 79% of people experiencing violence by an intimate partner, while women who are Indigenous, racialized, with a disability, refugees, or identify as LGBTQ2S+ face disproportionately high rates of violence. Research shows that experiencing violence, in particular intimate partner violence, is a key reason that women and their dependents lose access to stable housing or experience homelessness. A report by the Canadian Women’s Foundation found that women who leave their partners and become single parents are five times more likely to live in poverty, while women leaving violence encounter other systemic and structural challenges to accessing stable housing, such as being turned away from emergency shelters due to capacity issues, and discrimination from landlords and property managers who refuse to rent to them based on their gender and other identifying characteristics.
These challenges increase women’s risk of experiencing homelessness. This cycle is illustrated by the Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey, which found that 47% of women surveyed reported a breakup as the reason for losing access to housing, the most commonly reported reason for women losing their housing, and 75.2% reported being survivors of abuse and trauma.
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness also found that discriminatory practices around social assistance, housing support and child welfare present additional barriers for low-income women to access housing, and interventions from child services are shown to increase risks of homelessness for both mothers and their children. This is in part due to social assistance systems cutting entitlements for mothers whose children enter the child welfare system, a response that further challenges their ability to retain stable and adequate housing.
Navigating homelessness
Just as women have different pathways to homelessness, they also navigate homelessness differently.
The Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey has found a severe lack of gender-specific supportive, transitional and permanent affordable housing to meet the needs of women who are at risk of losing their housing. Critically, as of 2019, 68% of shelter beds were co-ed or dedicated to men, compared to 13% dedicated to women, while many women avoid co-ed shelters due to the increased potential for violence in these spaces. This shortage is especially severe for Indigenous women, with data showing that 70% of northern reserves do not have dedicated spaces for women escaping violence.
Moreover, women are exposed to different risks when experiencing homelessness. Research underscores the cyclical nature of violence and homelessness for women. Just as violence is a pathway to homelessness, women are much more likely than men to experience violence and exploitation due to being homeless. The same survey shows that 37.5 % of young women and 41.3% of trans and non-binary people who are homeless experience sexual assault, compared to just 8.2% of men.
With fewer formal housing and homelessness supports available, women more frequently rely on informal, precarious, and at times dangerous supports to stabilize their housing. These can include strategies like couch-surfing with friends and family, staying in substandard or unsafe accommodation, staying in violent or exploitative relationships, and exchanging sex for shelter. These situations represent forms of “hidden homelessness” that exist on the margins of the formal homelessness support and shelter system.
Why do definitions matter?
In 2017, the Canadian government introduced the National Housing Strategy (NHS) to address Canada’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The NHS introduced several programs to prevent and respond to homelessness but did not adopt the broad definition of homelessness recognized by the United Nations (UN). The UN definition of homelessness recognizes that homelessness is interrelated with poverty and includes people living in temporary accommodation and inadequate housing without access to security of tenure or basic services. This broad definition encompasses the types of hidden homelessness often experienced by women, including those who are couch surfing, incarcerated, hospitalized, being sexually exploited, exiting foster care, or those living in unsafe or unstable housing.
Most definitions fail to account for the unique structural and systemic oppressions that shape homelessness for Indigenous women, girls, gender-diverse peoples including: genocidal violence, intergenerational trauma, institutional betrayal, racism and discrimination, sexual violence and homicide, and criminalization.
Concerningly, these experiences are not captured under the NHS’s narrow definition of homelessness, which focuses on more visible forms of chronic homelessness. The NHS defines homelessness as a “situation in which someone does not have a permanent address, or stable, permanent or appropriate housing, or the means to acquire it.” As a result, research and data gathering approaches, as well as program design and funding under the NHS, have focused on chronic or visible homelessness. For example, one of the ways that the Canadian government has determined homelessness statistics is by focusing on shelter capacity and occupancy. However, it is estimated that 7% of women in Canada experience hidden homelessness at some point in their lives. Therefore, using shelter occupancy to measure the rates of homelessness excludes large numbers of women experiencing hidden homelessness, for whom both unsheltered homelessness and shelter use pose threats to their safety and an increased risk of child apprehension for women who have children in their care. This systemic undercounting makes it challenging to estimate the number of women experiencing homelessness in Canada.
Homelessness, chronic homelessness, housing need, and affordability definitions in current federal policy do not reflect the experiences of housing precarity or homelessness, nor the depth of poverty women and gender-diverse people live in, which means it cannot possibly hope to address these issues at a foundational level.
The lack of national data on hidden homelessness has led to the exclusion of key populations of women to receive support from homelessness programs and has produced inadequate policy responses to address their needs. These gaps in responses to women’s emergency housing needs have contributed to the significant shortage in shelters for women, as mentioned above. In addition, programs under the NHS, such as Reaching Home, which is considered one of the main funding streams dedicated to ending homelessness, have also failed to account for the specific factors that make women vulnerable to homelessness, such as lower wages, lack of affordable childcare and being the primary caretakers in the family, as well as gender-based violence.
The Canadian government must change its definition of homelessness to include the experiences of women and gender-diverse people, and center Indigenous ways of understanding and experiencing homelessness, to effectively address their needs and advance the right to housing.
Tell the federal government: Canada’s homelessness definition must be inclusive of women and gender-diverse people.
The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 Canadian Right to Housing Research Fellowships:
Brittany Cormier and Monika Imeri
About the fellowship
The Canadian Right to Housing Fellowship program aims to foster and promote research that advances understanding of the housing landscape in Canada and of housing as a human right.
About the 2023 fellows
Brittany Cormier
Brittany is a master’s student at Saint Mary’s University, a qualitative researcher and an abstract painter based in Charlottetown, PEI. She holds a first-class standing bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology from the University of Prince Edward Island. Brittany studies hidden and at-risk forms of homelessness in her community, as well as evictions and housing discrimination experienced by tenants. Her recent work includes research and administration, provincial-level policy work, and program delivery in the non-profit sector.
As a research fellow with CCHR, her project will examine discriminatory practices in the rental housing sector, examining the impacts of housing discrimination on communities and how it undermines the right to housing.
Monika Imeri
Monika is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at Carleton University. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Middle East Technical University in Turkey, where she graduated summa cum laude in city planning. She is actively engaged with local community organizations and advocates for urban justice in Ottawa, where she is based.
As a research fellow with CCHR, her project will examine the multidimensional impacts of development-led displacement in Ottawa. She will take an ethnographic case study approach to document the lived experiences of tenants from equity-deserving communities who have been affected by dispossession, housing insecurity, and discrimination in Ottawa. The project will uncover and shed light on the lived realities of displacement and its impacts on equity-deserving populations.
Saskatoon, SK – March 1, 2023 – A new project by the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) will capture the experiences of the hidden homeless population in Saskatoon to develop a framework for effective evidence-based solutions to ending hidden homelessness in Saskatoon and across Canada.
Hidden homelessness is experienced by many people across the country, but there has been great difficulty in understanding the extent of the problem as it is an invisible form of homelessness. With limited data, Statistics Canada in 2016 estimated that nearly 1 in 10 people in Canada experience hidden homelessness. Those experiencing hidden homelessness may be couch surfing with friends or family, sleeping in cars, or staying in unsafe situations just to have a roof over their heads. Some populations disproportionately experience hidden homelessness such as Indigenous peoples, women and gender-diverse individuals, or children who were involved in the child welfare system.
“Hidden homelessness occurs behind closed doors and is often invisible to the public and decision-makers,” says Bahar Shadpour, Director of Policy and Communications at CCHR. “This project is an opportunity to bring hidden homelessness into the light by convening a range of community stakeholders and developing solutions that are derived from their lived experience.”
This initiative was funded through the Solution Labs program, administered by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) under the National Housing Strategy, in partnership with CT Labs and several local partners in Saskatoon. This project aims to understand and enumerate the experiences of hidden homelessness in Saskatoon. The Solution Labs program provides housing stakeholders with funding and expert innovation lab consultants to help solve complex housing problems using innovative methods and tools.
“Despite hidden homelessness being prevalent in communities across Canada, there is a lack of data on the scope and nature of the issue,” says Shadpour. “Without accurate data, the needs of this population are often not represented in current housing policies and are in effect left out of solutions that can help them find permanent housing.”
Various stakeholders from across Saskatoon’s housing system will be supporting the project to capture the journeys of those experiencing hidden homelessness and co-develop innovative strategies for collecting data to create evidence-based solutions.
Media contact: Shelley Buckingham Manager of Communications, Canadian Centre for Housing Rights Email: media [at] housingrightscanada.com
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has published findings in response to a written question from a member of Parliament which show that the majority of affordable units approved under Canada’s Rapid Housing Initiative have not yet been constructed. The Rapid Housing Initiative was launched in 2020 to provide funding to cities and non-profit organizations to build affordable homes for vulnerable Canadians, especially those experiencing homelessness. The goal of the program is to build affordable housing quickly, as $2.5 billion were offered during the first two rounds of project funding, with the condition that approved units must be built within 12 months in most places or 18 months in northern or remote communities. However, construction delays indicate that many of the approved projects are unable to meet their deadlines and have not been constructed. While delays have been linked to supply chain disruptions, rising costs and weather-related issues, experts believe that pushback from neighborhood residents and a lack of support from provincial governments plays an important part in the delays. It is imperative that all levels of government collaborate to ensure affordable and supportive housing is developed across Canada and that the federal government addresses the data gaps preventing it from determining who is benefiting from housing programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative.
New data from Statistics Canada shows that almost one third of homeowners in the country are investors. One in five homes in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was considered an investment property in 2020. Investors owned over 30% of Nova Scotia’s housing and 29% of New Brunswick’s housing. The new report further shows that condominiums are used more often as an investment compared to single-family homes, with Ontario having the highest rate of condominiums (over 40%) used as an investment. While rising home prices have created wealth for real estate investors across the country, many low- to moderate-income renters are struggling to find an affordable place to call home. These financialized actors sometimes leave units vacant instead of renting them out to many renter households in search of a home. Local governments are starting to implement a vacant home tax to address the negative impact of this financialization of housing. CCHR has made recommendations on how a vacant home tax can be best implemented to reduce the negative impact of housing financialization.
New data released from Statistics Canada shows that one in four Canadians said that they are unable to cover an unexpected expense of $500. Nearly a third of women (29%) and a quarter of men (24%) reported facing a difficulty to pay an unexpected expense. Meanwhile, almost half of Canadians are very concerned with their ability to afford housing or rent, in addition to concerns over the rising prices of gasoline and food. Young adults were shown to be most concerned about their finances, in particular having to deal with high rents. Additionally, Black families and racialized communities are disproportionately impacted by the rising cost of housing, with 74% of Black Canadians and 65% of South Asians reporting concerns over the high cost of housing. This data provides further evidence that governments must prioritize the needs of those most impacted by the housing affordability crisis, especially renter households living on low- to moderate-incomes.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Halifax had the highest year-over-year spike in residential rental costs in the country, with average rents increasing by 9%, which is well above the national average of 5%. Rising rents and low vacancy rates in the province are forcing more people to live in precarious housing situations and experience homelessness. In January, the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia identified 796 people who had been without housing for 6 months, which is significantly higher than the 250 individuals the association identified as experiencing chronic homelessness prior to the pandemic. The takeaway for many from the CMHC report is that more rental housing is urgently needed that would be affordable for low- to moderate-income households.
A Halifax small claims court has upheld a $13,662.15 award to tenant Brandy McGuire, ruling that her landlord, a Halifax developer, violated the province’s renoviction legislation. In March 2021, the ban on renovictions was lifted when the province’s state of emergency ended. Prior to the end of the renovictions ban, McGuire and her family were told that they had 60 days to leave their unit, because the building was beyond repair and the property would be retired. McGuire fought the eviction and won her case at the residential tenancies hearing, but that decision was later appealed by her landlord. McGuire’s legal counsel, Katie Brousseau at the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, said that McGuire’s recent victory at the appeal stage sets a precedent in such cases, making it “amongst the largest awards and amongst the very few, if only, decisions interpreting the renoviction provisions.” The amount awarded will go a long way in helping McGuire support her family, and housing advocates hope that her case will help protect the rights of other tenants in the province.
On February 15, the City of Toronto passed its 2023 budget. There were some positive commitments made in the budget to address housing and homelessness. For example, the budget makes an allocation of $800,000 to open one 24/7 warming centre until April 15. Since there are currently no 24/7 warming centres, this is a positive step that will support 50 people for 2 months. However, a motion calling for more 24/7 warming centres to meet the need of unhoused individuals in the city did not pass. The budget also expands the $6.2 million allocated for the Rent Bank by $1 million which will help more tenants who are at risk of eviction to pay their rent arrears and stabilize their housing. In addition, $848,000 was committed to the RentSafeTO program to hire more staff, while $882,000 was allocated towards establishing the role of the Housing Commissioner at the Ombudsman’s office. Further funds were committed to support the City in the creation of new affordable housing and supporting the implementation of a multi-tenant houses licensing program and the enforcement of short-term rentals. While the budget commits to supporting the Housing Secretariat’s Office to develop a renovictions by-law, no funding commitments were made towards expanding the Tenant Support Program to help the growing number of tenants facing renovictions. Despite the City of Toronto’s commitment to advance the right to housing, the budget failed to adopt a rights-based approach which would have prioritized the needs of those most impacted by the affordable and adequate housing crisis, and allocated the maximum available resources for initiatives that can house all Torontonians. Instead, funds were allocated to various programs, and then the leftover funds were used to fund critical initiatives in the city to house people.
CCHR provided recommendations on the budget in a written submission last month.
In response to the proposed budget for the City of Ottawa, housing advocates and some City Councillors are calling on the City to increase the budget earmarked for affordable housing, beyond the $15 million currently planned for 2023. Advocates from the Alliance to End Homelessness, the Council on Aging of Ottawa and the Ottawa Community Land Trust spoke at a meeting with the Planning and Housing Committee and urged them to double the City’s capital spending to $30 million to respond to inflation, rising interest rates, rising rents and increases to the cost of constructing affordable units. They are also urging the City to explore other ways to add affordable housing such as using vacant city land. Four out of 12 Councillors on the Committee dissented on the capital portion of the budget and agreed that the budget should be increased, pointing to housing affordability as a key issue amongst constituents. While several Councillors were sympathetic to these concerns, there were no attempts made to increase the budget for affordable housing at the Committee level. The debate on the budget will head to City Council on March 1.
Stakeholders have also provided written submissions expressing their concerns and recommendations on the proposed Ottawa budget, including the Right to Housing Coalition in Ottawa.
Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) met with Ontario’s Minister of Finance, Peter Bethlenfalvy, and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark, to discuss the upcoming provincial budget, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, as well as increases to infrastructure funding and solutions for homelessness in the province. The OBCM spoke about their commitment to doing their part to reach the province’s goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years, given the critical role that municipalities play in the building of new housing. They also called on the province to put a framework in place to ensure that the province’s goals are met as quickly as possible, by putting a Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team in place. The OBCM adopted a motion to create a health and homelessness strategy with recommendations made to the province including more flexible and predictable funding for supportive housing, more collaboration between the provincial government and agencies to reduce red tape and improve coordination related to wraparound supports for unhoused people. They are also calling for more investments in low barrier hubs that provide drop-in services for individuals who need support with addictions and mental health.
The legislative session in British Columbia opened in early February, with the Finance Minister presenting the provincial budget in late February. Housing advocates want to see a budget that will adequately address pressing issues related to the province’s growing housing affordability crisis. The province has already allocated funds for housing, including $500 million for non-profit housing providers to purchase buildings and retain their affordability. Furthermore, the Housing Minister, Ravi Kahlon, said that the government will introduce 25 bills this session that reflect Premier David Eby’s priorities, including launching a housing refresh strategy and a road map for increasing housing supply in the province. Eby has promised to take steps to address the housing affordability crisis, including overhauling the province’s social housing program and building homes for middle-class families through the BC Builds program. CCHR will continue to monitor the budget and BC legislature for new developments.
Yukon’s Liberal and NDP parties have signed a new confidence and supply agreement that includes significant changes to rental regulations. One of the main changes is that landlords will now be prohibited from evicting tenants without providing a reason. Prior to this change, Yukon was one of the only jurisdictions in Canada where evicting a tenant without cause was permitted. The agreement also includes a commitment to carry out a review of the Residential Tenancies Act by June, and to add further amendments to annual rent increases. The agreement further adds a minimum and maximum rate for rent increases, capping rent increases at 5% annually regardless of the rate of inflation. The ban on evictions and the rent cap were brought into effect immediately. Advocates in Yukon said that they are pleased to see greater protections being implemented for tenants, which will hopefully lead to greater justice for tenants overall.
Across Canada, the number of people who rent their homes is growing rapidly, and the challenges they face in their homes are growing too. Many renters face excessive rent increases that leave them vulnerable to “economic eviction.” Many have so few housing options available to them that they must live in inadequate homes that are inaccessible or poorly maintained where they present dangers to their health and safety. Many even face discriminatory and illegal behaviour from some landlords, with no effective recourse available to them to protect themselves and their rights.
These are common issues that renters across Canada are facing every day. Right now, laws that apply to renters in Canada are unequal across the country, and not all renters enjoy the same basic legal protections that would allow them to live securely in their homes. This is not acceptable and it has to change.
Housing is a human right, and it’s time for our governments to acknowledge that renters, like everyone else, need homes that are adequate and secure.
Contact your local representatives and tell them that renters need secure homes so that:
They will not face discrimination when applying for housing or while renting, and there is effective recourse available if they do.
They will be able to remain in their homes and will not face “economic eviction” due to excessive rent increases at a landlord’s whim.
Their home will be accessible, well-maintained and in a state of good repair.
They will be able to access the support and help they need in order to challenge unfair or illegal behaviour on the part of landlords.
All renters – no matter where they live – need basic legal protections so they can live in secure and adequate homes.
The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights’ (CCHR) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Annie Hodgins as CCHR’s next Executive Director.
Following a comprehensive national search, the Board has selected Annie to continue her trajectory with the organization in this leadership capacity, a role she has held in an acting position since July 2022.
Annie is a seasoned non-profit leader with expertise in housing law and policy, fund development, operations and strategic management, knowledge mobilization, capacity-building, public engagement, and advocacy. Over nearly a decade, she has served the organization in several roles including in executive leadership, operations, tenant services and public legal education. Most recently, Annie worked alongside the previous Executive Director to expand the organization’s work across Canada, to respond to the growing housing challenges facing people and communities. As a result, the organization is working to advance systemic change on a larger scale than ever before, with expanded services, a renewed focus on community-relevant and evidence-based policy advocacy, a new research department, and a thriving law reform practice.
Outside of her role at CCHR, Annie serves as the co-chair of the City of Toronto’s Housing and Homelessness Services Network, as a member of Toronto City Council’s Tenant Advisory Committee, and as a board member at All Saints Church and Community Centre.
“Annie is a passionate and dedicated leader, with a strong commitment to advancing the right to housing for all Canadians. The Board congratulates Annie on this appointment, and thanks her for her years of service to the organization. Through Annie’s leadership, we know the organization will continue rising to meet the challenges that lay ahead and to drive the important work of the organization until everyone has a safe and secure place to call home.”
CCHR Board Co-Chairs
About Annie Hodgins
Annie has worked with communities, advocates and governments to advance the right to housing in Canada for a decade. In her time at CCHR she has held various roles including Deputy Executive Director, Manager of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, and Manager of CCHR’s Tenant Services Program. Annie is a skilled writer and public speaker with expertise in housing law and policy, fund development, operations, strategic management, knowledge mobilization and capacity building. Before joining CCHR in 2013, she worked in fund development and as a Researcher and Office Manager for the Institute on Governance, supporting the work of Vice President of the Toronto office. Annie has a Bachelor’s degree in History and English from the University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in History from York University. She also holds certificates in Strategy and Competitive Advantage from the Rotman School of Management, and Non-Profit Leadership from the University of Toronto. She is involved in several committees and boards, including as the co-chair of the City of Toronto’s Housing and Homelessness Services Network, as a member of Toronto City Council’s Tenant Advisory Committee, and as a board member at All Saints Church and Community Centre.
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