Canada Needs a Real Housing Plan. We’re Building One.
The Homes and Growth Coalition is creating a national housing blueprint and looking for partners to help make it happen.
Canada lacks a plan to fix its middle-class housing crisis. It is time to create one
The Missing Middle Initiative and Canada 2020 have come together to create the Homes and Growth Coalition. Through original research, roundtables, and events, the Coalition has tasked itself with creating a comprehensive policy blueprint to restore middle-class housing affordability across Canada.
Currently, Canada has an ambitious target to double housing starts by 2035, but the housing start target lacks specificity on what types of homes, where they will be located, and at what price. It also lacks a blueprint on how to achieve that target.
Without such a blueprint, there is a real risk that the federal government will scale back its housing ambitions. A recent report released by the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate recommends that the government set a target of 2060 to solve the middle-class housing crisis, cementing a future of intergenerational inequality for four generations, Millennials through Beta, which threatens to stifle Canadian productivity and economic growth on a national scale.
Canada cannot wait until 2060 to fix the middle-class housing crisis.
There is a better way.
By the end of the year, the Homes and Growth Coalition will create a housing blueprint that identifies vital policy reforms across all three orders of government, along with a series of objectives and key performance indicators. That Blueprint will be designed to help the federal government both end the middle-class housing crisis and double housing starts by 2035.
The work of the coalition will be based on ten principles that recognize that families come in all shapes and sizes, that a diversity of housing options is needed, and that governments should aim to lower the cost of building new homes, rather than affecting resale prices. Most importantly, it recognizes that affordability is a function of both home prices and incomes; robust economic growth must be at the centre of any housing plan.
The Homes and Growth Coalition is seeking partners to help shape a bold new housing strategy for Canada
In the coming weeks, we will release more details about the coalition’s work, including a release date for the final Blueprint and some of the activities we will undertake.
If you are interested in learning more about the Coalition, or if your organization would like to become a Supporting Partner in this work, please e-mail us at [email protected].