The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
NATIONAL
- Federal government announces new measures for affordable housing and homelessness prevention
Throughout October, the federal government introduced several new measures to encourage housing development, including:
- The addition of 14 underused properties suitable for housing development to the Canada Public Lands Bank.
- New mortgage rules to encourage residential densification through the development of secondary suites.
- Consultations on vacant residential land taxation, which could encourage the development of new housing, discourage land speculation and generate additional revenues to reinvest in federal housing programs.
- Nearly $50 million through the Homelessness Reduction Innovation Fund to help communities develop innovative homelessness prevention projects and accelerate the construction of new homes for people experiencing homelessness. This initiative is part of the federal Reaching Home Program and will be implemented by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, with support offered to communities drawing from successful approaches.
- National Advisory Council on Poverty stresses importance of non-market housing
The National Advisory Council on Poverty released a report showing a 1.4 million increase in people living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2020. The report highlights that the government’s approach to delivering benefits and services has proven insufficient to improve economic conditions of historically marginalized groups, including Arab, Chinese and Black communities, Indigenous people, recent immigrants, people with disabilities and female-led households, who were the most likely to live below the poverty line. Reflecting feedback from people with lived experience of poverty, community organizations, academics, and experts, the report outlines several recommendations to address the high costs of living, improve access to benefits and services, and address poverty inequality, including by prioritizing the development of non-market housing and expanding rental assistance programs. - Rise in food bank use spurred by high housing costs
Food Banks Canada published its annual report, revealing a record two million visits to food banks in 2024. This represents a six per cent jump from last year and a 90 per cent increase from 2019. Renters are hit particularly hard by food insecurity, with nearly 70 per cent of food bank clients living in market rental housing. Renters who relied the most on food banks were racialized people and immigrants who have lived in Canada for less than 10 years. The number of clients experiencing homelessness also rose from six per cent in 2019 to almost 10 per cent in 2024. The report shows that lower income households spend over 80 per cent of their income on food and housing alone, while the proportion of employed food bank clients nearly doubled since 2019. The report points to rapid inflation, high housing costs and inadequate social assistance as drivers of acute food insecurity. Findings from the report are echoed in Habitat for Humanity Canada’s Affordable Housing Survey, which shows that 75 per cent of renters have to sacrifice basic needs like food to contend with increasing housing costs. To address the root causes of food insecurity, Food Banks Canada is calling on governments to increase investments in affordable housing and improve rental assistance programs to help offset housing costs. - CHRA and sector partners release plan for Canada Community Housing Growth Fund
As parliamentary discussions resumed, the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) sent a letter to the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, calling on the federal government to double the share of community housing in Canada. Recommendations included prioritizing non-profit developers under the Public Lands for Homes Plan, accelerating the implementation of the Rental Protection Fund and investing in a Canada Community Housing Sector Growth Fund (CCHGF). CHRA and sector partners are proposing a plan to develop the CCHGF that would help strengthen the community housing sector through investments of $160 million over five years. These investments would help provide financial resources to improve organizational capacity and culturally sensitive programming of community housing providers through training, capacity building, and knowledge transfer. The proposed CCHGF builds on the success of existing initiatives implemented in Nova Scotia, Nunavut, and Newfoundland and Labrador through the work of the Community Housing Transformation Centre.
PROVINCIAL / TERRITORIAL
Prince Edward Island
- P.E.I. government-commissioned report points to benefits of rental registry
Through a freedom of information request, a 2021 report commissioned by the provincial government was recently released that sheds light on how a rental registry could protect renters from illegal rent increases. The Green Party has called for a rent registry since 2019 but one has never been implemented. P.E.I. has rent control and vacancy control, which prevents landlords from increasing rents beyond the provincial guidelines, even when the unit is passed on to a new renter. After amending its Residential Tenancy Act last year by requiring landlords to disclose the previous rent in lease agreements, the province considered a rent registry to be unnecessary. However, advocates from P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing say that even if landlords are obligated to provide that information, there is no monitoring mechanism available for renters to confirm if the information is accurate. Former federal Green Party candidate Darcie Lanthier created a community-sourced rental registry to help renters across the province access that information and guide them in the process of filing a rent dispute. Since the registry was launched two years ago, many renters have been able to challenge illegal rent increases and were compensated over $100,000 by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.
New Brunswick
- Tenant advocates publish report calling for rent control ahead of election day, newly elected Liberals heard the call
The New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants’ Rights released a report examining rental housing in the province between 2020 and 2023. The report reveals that 27 per cent of renters cannot afford their rent and are afraid of losing their homes, owing to average rents rising by almost 30 per cent in the three-year period. The report calls on all political parties to strengthen renters’ rights through the introduction of a permanent rent cap tied to inflation and the establishment of a housing tribunal to adjudicate disputes between renters and landlords, including ruling on eviction proceedings. The existing Tenant and Landlord Relations Office can mediate between the two parties but has limited power to enforce provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). The report also recommends the inclusion of social housing tenants under the RTA and extending and funding legal aid to address landlord-tenant disputes.
Recently elected Premier Susan Holt’s housing plan aligns with the report’s recommendations and has been welcomed by the Coalition. New measures promised by the Liberal government include building 30,000 new homes, establishing a fund to support non-market housing providers, eliminating the provincial sales tax on multi-unit developments, and increasing investments in modular housing projects. Chief amongst those measures is the introduction of a flexible rent cap set at three per cent and tied to the Consumer Price Index. The initial rent cap would be reviewed annually and would not prevent property owners from applying additional rent increases to offset capital expenditures for major renovations. In an interview with CBC, CCHR’s Manager of Policy, Sara Beyer, said the proposed rent increase guidelines contain promising measures, but warned that without tying rent increases to the unit through vacancy control and the elimination of fixed-term leases, landlords could be incentivized to evict tenants to get around rent increase guidelines. She added that the proposed legislation will need strong monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to address these gaps.
Ontario
- Ontario mayors petition the Premier to use notwithstanding clause to clear encampments
Several Ontario mayors sent a letter to the Premier asking for more power to evict people from encampments and force them into addiction treatment. The request includes the use of the notwithstanding clause under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override other parts of the Charter for five years and bypass court decisions preventing municipalities from clearing encampments. A 2023 ruling prevented the Waterloo Region from removing an encampment without providing alternative shelter options, declaring that such evictions would constitute a violation of Charter-protected rights of encampment residents. Using the notwithstanding clause could invalidate similar rulings and would override the very rights the Charter is meant to protect. In addition, mayors are asking the province to review the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act to expand the scope of involuntary treatment for people experiencing both homelessness and addictions. Other measures proposed in the letter amount to the criminalization of homelessness. Both the mayors’ requests and the Premier’s response have sparked outrage amongst encampment residents and advocates, spurring the launch of petitions, campaigns, and a counter letter from a larger group of mayors and councillors opposed to the use of the notwithstanding clause and calling for human-rights based solutions to homelessness. The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network, National Right to Housing Network, and Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network issued a joint statement outlining how the use of the notwithstanding clause would undermine the right to housing and the rule of law, and calling on mayors to rescind their petition to the Premier. The statement also calls on all elected officials across Ontario to uphold the right to housing and the rights protected under the Charter.
Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan Party proposes ambitious homelessness prevention plan for its fifth consecutive term
On October 28, the Saskatchewan Party won a fifth consecutive term with a majority government. A Rentals.ca survey conducted during the campaign found that housing was a key factor in the voting decision of 60 per cent of Saskatchewanians, with 78 per cent of respondents citing high rents as a top concern. With education and healthcare having been the leading issues of the electoral campaign this year, housing platforms of leading candidates emphasized the importance of tying housing and homelessness programs to mental health and addiction supports. Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe announced a homelessness action plan focused on recovery-oriented care, with 500 new addiction treatment centres in the pipeline and additional funding to increase the number of beds in emergency shelters and transitional housing, including by creating new complex needs emergency shelter spaces. However, safe consumption sites will be dismantled and no new measures for renters have been proposed. For its part, the NDP platform focused on restoring old or vacant government-owned housing and introducing new legislation to protect renters from excessive or unreasonable rent increases. NDP Leader Carla Beck also proposed an “all-of-the-above” approach to tackle homelessness, with increased funding for mental health and addiction support services.
- Federal Housing Advocate’s new report calls attention to Métis housing conditions
Based on a systemic review conducted by the Federal Housing Advocate (FHA), the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan and the FHA launched a report on housing precarity and homelessness in Métis communities. The report details housing conditions and experiences in Métis communities across Saskatchewan, in particular in rural, remote and Northern areas, and examines the colonial roots of the systematic denial of Métis peoples’ right to housing. As a result of historic barriers to adequate housing, Métis communities experience disproportionately high rates of homelessness and housing precarity, evidenced by a chronic lack of basic infrastructure and services, lack of proper building and property maintenance standards and a crucial lack of emergency shelters and transitional housing. The report makes several recommendations to all levels of government to dismantle barriers to housing for Métis in Saskatchewan, including by correcting past and present government actions and policies rooted in colonial and racist systems, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing and preserving Métis identity through culturally appropriate housing solutions.
British Columbia
- Housing and homelessness key factors in NDP re-election
Housing affordability was at the heart of the provincial election, with 41 per cent of voters ranking housing, homelessness and poverty as the most important electoral issues, followed by health care and the economy. The party leaders each proposed comprehensive measures to address British Columbians’ top concern during the campaign.
NDP Leader David Eby’s campaign built on the existing measures implemented during his first term as Premier, maintaining legislation on upzoning, transit-oriented development, short-term rental restrictions and doubling the Speculation and Vacancy Tax which has facilitated the return of 20,000 vacant properties into the long-term rental market. In addition, the NDP promised to build 300,000 affordable homes, invest $2 billion in the BC Builds program to leverage underutilized land for affordable rental housing development, invest $500 million in the Rental Protection Fund for non-profit developers to purchase and preserve existing rental housing, and introduce building standards to boost the construction of prefabricated homes.
Conservative Leader John Rustad ran a campaign centered around deregulation, proposing to eliminate provincial legislation around short-term rental restrictions, residential densification and taxation of vacant properties. Instead of requiring municipalities to set housing targets, Rustad promised to set municipal permit approval deadlines, work with municipalities to pre-zone areas for housing development and support municipal infrastructure development through a $1 billion annual fund tied to housing starts.
B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau spoke of the financialization of housing and campaigned for significant public investments in non-market housing, a property transfer tax on the sale of residential units to real estate investment trusts and legislation to recognize housing as a human right, including by strengthening renter protections and regulating rents through vacancy control.
Polls showed that British Columbians supported most of the housing measures proposed by the NDP. On October 28, the NDP won a close majority in the election, indicating a renewed, albeit conditional trust in the Premier’s housing plan.
MUNICIPAL / LOCAL
- Toronto adopts renovictions bylaw to protect renters from unlawful evictions
Municipalities across Ontario are implementing bylaws that seek to strengthen protections for renters. Following Hamilton and Toronto, London recently adopted a new renovictions bylaw, which requires landlords to obtain a renovation license and report stating the need for a unit to be vacant for renovations to proceed. While the bylaw aims to deter bad faith renovictions, some councilors and advocates called for it to be strengthened through more substantial penalties for landlords and additional supports for displaced renters. Meanwhile, Brampton’s rental licensing pilot program, aimed at addressing rental housing maintenance and safety issues, has led to 4,700 inspections and over 600 penalty notices. Despite some landlord opposition to the program, councilors noted the program’s success in identifying and addressing rental housing issues.
- Canada launches first Social Medicine Housing Initiative
A new supportive housing initiative was inaugurated in Toronto and is Canada’s first housing model that integrates healthcare services and wraparound supports for unhoused hospital patients. In partnership with the University Health Network (UHN), the non-profit organization Fred Victor will be providing 51 permanent, rent-geared-to-income homes with health and social supports on site to help UHN’s unhoused patients exit homelessness and receive stable care. In addition to a health clinic in the building, residents will also have access to various community-based supports, case management supports, legal aid and harm reduction resources. This continuum of care includes 24/7 property management staff experienced in trauma-informed care and personal support workers for residents with disabilities. Co-designed with an advisory of lived experts and through extensive consultations with experts, advocates and unhoused patients, the project is rooted in the knowledge that stable and adequate housing can improve health outcomes by integrating housing and healthcare services.