We are more keenly aware of homelessness and food insecurity in our community when the days grow short and the temperature drops prior to the holiday season. We are fortunate to have many people who work very hard supporting the homeless and gathering food for food banks and soup kitchens.
Some propose redistribution of existing resources by providing money to the people who are unable to afford housing and/or food. This redistribution is traditionally and optimally done through Government action in taxation.
A report by Lyndsay Armstrong, of The Canadian Press, in the Globe and Mail declares that the Nova Scotia housing crunch is a once in a generation challenge.
Duncan Williams, president and CEO of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia, comments that Nova Scotia's housing shortage is a generational challenge that must be met with effort similar to what was needed to rebuild after the Halifax explosion.
Expected to be lacking 41,200 homes by 2028 -- and with the pressures of inflation, high interest rates and labour shortages -- the province needs to take immediate action,
Nova Scotia's current housing needs, he said in a recent interview, are similar to the province's situation after the Second World War, which resulted in a period of major urban development in Halifax that extended into the 1960s.
"We've done this before. We just need to go back and dust off some of the history for how it got done."
Williams says he's looking overseas for help. Last week, he returned from a recruiting trip in London, England, where he shared job details with professionals with experience in "anywhere from drywall, to carpentry, to finish carpentry and pretty much anything in between." (Armstrong, 2023)
Mohammed El Sherif, project manager of Halifax-based construction company Savvy Homes Construction Ltd. said in a recent interview that next to challenges with labour, the rising costs of all aspects of home building is a top concern.
"The price of material and land has had a major impact and the construction insurance is also getting expensive. Those rising costs are reflected in the price of housing, he said, adding that they also limit the number of projects the company takes on.
"Sometimes we find the land, but then we do our math and if it's going to get too expensive by the time we finish constructing the house, then it's less appealing to a buyer," making the project unviable, he said. (Armstrong, 2023)
The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, housed at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, helps to promote and protect the right to housing in Canada, including the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing. The goal of the Advocate’s work is to drive change on key systemic housing issues and advance the right to housing for all in Canada. An engagement report, Reclaiming the National Housing Strategy, shares what was heard.
Aditya Rao, Senior Research Officer with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National, commented that Canada has a National Housing Strategy but needs a National Right to Housing Strategy.
The National Housing Strategy is not even meeting its own affordability criteria. Conventional wisdom right now is that demand for housing is outpacing supply, but not all supply is good supply. Significant problems with the definitions being used for what is considered affordable housing. A right to housing approach would require affordability measures to be tied to incomes, not the market. We can't use the market to solve problems that the market is creating.
The rent cap in New Brunswick is expiring this year and tenants are being hit with significant rent increases. There is growing consensus that the biggest threat to housing affordability is the financialization of housing. Some consider it a normal feature of the rental market – this idea of charging rents “as much as the market can bear.” Housing is a basic need - people will even choose to go hungry and sacrifice on medications, rather than lose their home. People with disabilities are applying for medical assistance in dying so that they don't have to face homelessness. Non-profit and co-operative housing provide long term guaranteed affordability We already have proven solutions:
- Use public money in the public interest, non-profit and cooperative housing
- Create national guidelines for provinces on minimum standards for tenant protections
- Use federal spending powers to require provincial legislative compliance
It is not enough to legislate the right to adequate housing federally if you can have wildly different experiences with your housing situation depending on where you live (What We Heard Report - Reclaiming the National Housing Strategy, 2023)
Gordon Laird, 2003/2004 Media Fellow at the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership began his field work on shelter in Iqaluit, February 2001, and ended in Calgary, June 2007. In his report Homelessness in a growth economy: Canada’s 21st century paradox, one of his key action points is labelled Housing First.
In the past, paternalistic attitudes towards low income and homeless people assumed that candidates for income assistance and affordable housing needed to improve themselves and exhibit middle class characteristics before housing was granted. Housing First, properly applied, assumes that housing is a prerequisite to economic, social and personal well-being. Therefore, shelter – independent, social, supportive – comes first in any successful recovery from homelessness. In the immediate future, Canada must deploy a crisis reduction strategy to reduce the number of core long-term homeless people, who require the majority of resources; and second, enact preventative measures to keep a growing population of at-risk Canadians from becoming homeless. While addictions and mental health are common concerns among the homeless, poverty is the leading cause of today’s homelessness and housing affordability crisis. Canada’s “new homeless” are families, women, new Canadians, students and children – a broad demographic whose common trait is poverty. Canada should immediately recognize this fact with targeted income supplements, rent subsidies, transitional housing and social housing should be deployed to improve housing security. Finally, Canada should pioneer new ways to restore baseline income security to Canadians, especially those at greatest risk for experiencing affordability problems. (Laird, 2007)
Kevin Yarr of CBC News quotes Jane Ledwell, a member of the P.E.I. Working Group for a Livable Income, as said in a news release.
"This report establishes beyond doubt that a province-wide guaranteed basic income in P.E.I. is feasible and realistic,"
The detailed report on guaranteed basic income says it would mean 65 per cent fewer P.E.I. children would be living in poverty, along with 90 per cent fewer people who live alone — and poverty could be virtually eliminated for people with disabilities.
But Island children currently living in poverty would see big benefits, the report argues, with the poverty rate falling from 9.0 per cent to 3.1 per cent. The poverty rate for people living alone would drop from 27 per cent to three per cent. Overall, the poverty rate would fall from 10 per cent to two per cent.
The report outlines paying for the provincial share through higher taxes, aimed in particular at higher-income earners.
The provincial sales tax would go up one percentage point, with an offsetting increase in the HST rebate for lower-income earners. This would increase provincial revenues by an estimated $28.5 million.
The top marginal income tax rate would increase from 16.7 to 19.4 per cent, raising another $21.4 million.
The reports' authors believe the plan would mean a savings of $17.4 million as social services spending goes down.
For middle-income earners, the report estimates the tax cost at a few hundred dollars a year. For top earners, the increase quickly rises to close to $2,000. Those top earners would pay for close to half of the program.
A guaranteed basic income would have benefits for the province that are difficult to quantify, the report says. In general, it says, better living conditions would lead to better long-term outcomes in health, education, housing, community involvement and other areas. (Yarr, 2023)
Eric Stober of Global News reports that the wealth gap between the rich and poor in Canada widened at the fastest pace on record in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the year before, according to Statistics Canada, amid high inflation and declining real estate values.
The top 20 percent of earners in Canada held 67.8 per cent of the country’s net worth in the first quarter, compared with the bottom 40 per cent holding 2.7 per cent. The difference between those amounts equals the wealth gap.
“Most wealth is held by relatively few households in Canada,” Statistics Canada said in its report released in July 2023. (Stober, 2023)
One of the many stories about top Canadian, TC “Tommy” Douglas, is set in Regina just before he was to begin “medicare” in Saskatchewan. One of his staff asked him: “But Tommy, where are we going to get the money?” Premier Douglas reportedly responded “From them that has it!”
Perhaps, simply put, the answer to homelessness is to build more homes and the answer to poverty is access to more money. In Canada, the Government has responded, in the past, to housing needs by rapidly building houses. Rent subsidies and a guaranteed basic income are examples of Government providing money to improve the life situation of citizens. When the market fails, the Government must step up.
References
Armstrong, L. (2023, November 28). Nova Scotia housing crunch must be treated as 'once-in-a-generation challenge', industry says. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved December 2, 2023, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-nova-scotia-housing-crunch-must-be-treated-as-once-in-a-generation/
Laird, G. (n.d.). Shelter - Homelessness in a growth economy. The Homeless Hub. Retrieved December 2, 2023, from https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/Shelter07_study.pdf
Stober, E. (2023, July 4). Wealth gap between rich and poor widens at fastest pace on record in Canada - National | Globalnews.ca. Global News. Retrieved December 2, 2023, from https://globalnews.ca/news/9809757/wealth-gap-canada-first-quarter-2023/
What we heard report - Reclaiming the National Housing Strategy. (2023, February 7). Federal Housing Advocate. Retrieved December 2, 2023, from https://www.housingchrc.ca/en/publications/what-we-heard-report-reclaiming-national-housing-strategy
Yarr, K. (2023, November 22). Guaranteed basic income could cut poverty on P.E.I. by 80%: report. CBC. Retrieved December 2, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-guaranteed-basic-income-report-1.7036102
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