- Housing prices have increased at double the rate of income growth over the past two decades.
- To cope with housing affordability issues, people are increasingly “doubling up” with others and living in overcrowded housing.
Investing in subsidized housing
- Many academics, policymakers, stakeholders and the media have emphasized the need for more subsidized housing units to tackle this crisis.
- For example, in the city of Toronto, the wait time for a one-bedroom subsidized housing unit is 14 years.
National Housing Strategy
The federal government is taking steps to address Canada’s housing affordability crisis by implementing the National Housing Strategy. It has pledged to invest $82 billion to increase affordable housing. Roughly 25 to 33 per cent of these funds will be allocated to address the unmet housing needs of women and children. The implementation of the National Housing Strategy has raised two important questions:
To what extent does access to subsidized housing improve housing circumstances for Canadians?
What groups benefit the most from having access to subsidized housing?
Access to subsidized housing
- To address these questions, our study investigates how living in subsidized housing affects children’s exposure to unaffordable and overcrowded housing.
- Regardless of their family structure, children in subsidized housing are less likely than those in non-subsidized housing to experience housing affordability issues.
- Conversely, the pattern of variation in children’s exposure to overcrowded housing according to their access to subsidized housing differs markedly between children in two-parent and other families.
Who benefits the most?
- This compares with 65 per cent of children in two-parent families and 45 per cent of children in single-father families.
- This compares with six per cent for children in single-father homes and 15 per cent for children without resident parents.
Implications for housing policy
- It must rapidly build more subsidized housing units.
- In doing so, the government can reduce the wait times for subsidized housing and offer more units to those with high levels of housing vulnerability.
- Ottawa should also aim to better understand the needs of those in subsidized housing and build units that address these needs.
Kate Choi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).