Canadian Housing Crisis

The Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative  (CHEC) is an independent, university-based research and knowledge mobilization organization that shares evidence, stimulates new research and advises on strategic evidence-informed action. CHEC brings together a network of more than 30 academics from across Canada and beyond who are engaged in independent, in-depth research exploring the connections between income, housing and health.

The pie chart below represents an unscientific allocation of a possible per cent contribution of each bullet point.

CHEC Causes of Housing Crisis (unscientific percents)

 CHEC explains that the rapid escalation in the cost of both home ownership and rental accommodation in Canada and around the world has a multitude of causes, some more important than others.

Fifteen bold bullet points from the web post “What caused the housing crisis?” are summarized below:

1. Low interest rates:

2. Increased money supply: 

3. Financialization of housing:

4. Failure to prepare for population increase:

5. Exit of government from affordable housing: 

6. Failure to protect existing affordable housing: 

7. Slow municipal approval process:

8. Bad forecasting housing inflation and student increases.

9. Cohort of wealthy homeowners who bid up prices.

10. Grow condos over rentals: 

11. Exclusive single-family Nimbyism: 

12. Failure to build new student housing: 

13. Money laundering illegal money: 

14. Foreign investors buying properties in Canada

15. Failure to develop approved properties 

(Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative, n.d.)

The pie chart represents an unscientific allocation of a possible per cent contribution of each bullet point. Consider how you would change the allocation of percentage to causes that would more accurately reflect the situation in your area based on your experience.

References

Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative. (n.d.). What caused the housing crisis. CHEC. Retrieved October 31, 2025, from https://chec-ccrl.ca/what-caused-the-housing-crisis/ 

Articles on Homelessness from Ponder Patterns

Research that has been curated in the Ponder Patterns blog since August 2023 underlines the urgent need for the Government to increase efforts to address homelessness and food insecurity for immediate relief to suffering residents and long term equity and balance in our social safety net.

Homeless in Winter

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Supply or Speculation 

A plan to alleviate the shortage of housing in Canada is likely to be mentioned in the political platforms of all persons seeking election federally, provincially, and in municipalities. The plans may differ depending on the understanding of the authors about the root cause of the shortage.

When we built Homes

Supply, speculation, demand, and the lack of taxes on the sale of principal residences are cited as contributors to the shortage of available housing in Canada. In the next election cycles, we expect the successful candidates will support policy to tackle this disastrous situation.

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Housing Crisis Recent History

The evidence of the housing crisis in Nova Scotia is as close as our neighborhood park. This crisis has been building for many years. This article reviews some analysis and proposals from a few years ago.

Some Recommendations

The analysis of the housing crisis in these articles from 2019 and 2021 have identified the need for investment by government in affordable rental housing to rectify the inequity and injustice that continues to increase the number of homeless people in Nova Scotia.

Friday, September 8, 2023

Getting Back to Building Housing

A previous post, Housing Crisis Recent History, touched on the government decisions that have led to social housing austerity in Canada and the need for a large-scale community-based land acquisition strategy based on sustainable living, not returns for investors.

Building for Homeless or Investors

The need to address homelessness in HRM will be immediate as winter approaches. The alleviation of the housing crisis is urgent and requires action to maintain the status of HRM as a place to support living and working.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Different Understanding of Housing Concerns

The housing emergency in Nova Scotia is increasing daily and the understanding of the problem by provincial political leadership appears to differ in important details with the assessment of the situation by at least one Halifax Regional Municipality Councillor. This development resonates with concerns expressed in the Housing and Ideology post in June 2023. As noted then, political ideology may be a serious obstacle to effective action in the area of housing.

Housing as a Human Right

In the crisis of homelessness that we are experiencing in Nova Scotia, and particularly HRM, one essential criteria for efficient progress on this catastrophe is cooperation between all levels of governments that avoids political “half truths”and acceptance rather than shifting of responsibility.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Insecurity and the Economy

Our community is experiencing severe housing and food insecurity. The increasing numbers of people living in tents and depending on food banks indicates that action by the government is essential and urgent.

Klein, Seth. (2020) A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. Toronto, ON:ECW Press.

The role of the government to protect the health of Canadians was essential during the Covid 19 emergency. Government Action, similar to wartime programs, to guarantee the right of Canadians to adequate housing and access to healthy food is urgently required now.

Saturday, December 2, 2023

When the Market fails

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.

Adequate Housing

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.

Wealth Distribution Canada 2023

Renewal of Government Action for adequate housing and healthy food that mirrors the programs that created housing after WWII and during the CMHC supported housing initiatives that built Lower Sackville and Forest Hills with “sweat equity” are urgently required in combination with income support programs to alleviate food insecurity. Spending on housing and income for food security reduces spending in health, education, and social services and confirms the human right in Canada for adequate housing and food security for our residents.

Getting Back to Building Housing

A previous post, Housing Crisis Recent History, touched on the government decisions that have led to social housing austerity in Canada and the need for a large-scale community-based land acquisition strategy based on sustainable living, not returns for investors.

Housing Crisis in the Suburbs

This curation of opinion urges government to get back in the game in one instance and for less restrictions on development in the backyards of our cities.

Building in our Backyard

Max Fawcett, in an opinion piece in the National Observer, argues that the government needs to return to driving housing construction because he concludes that Pierre Poilievre’s housing prescription doesn’t add up.

Rather than government getting “out of the way,” as Poilievre suggests, it needs to find ways to get back in the game. This is where the Liberals and New Democrats have to come in. We need an alternative to Poilievre’s dumbed-down approach that trades in half-truths and gerrymandered data. We need an optimistic vision of the future in which Canadians aren’t forced to choose between urban sprawl and economic survival. And we need solutions that target the real stress points in our housing ecosystem rather than cutting a blank cheque to politically connected developers.

But Ford did manage to transfer more than $8 billion of wealth onto the balance sheets of a small handful of developers, some of whom just happened to be donors to his Ontario PC Party. And that, in the end, is the more likely priority here for conservatives: not affordability or justice for younger Canadians but the elimination of anything that stands between home builders and their profits. Yes, the private sector has a major role to play in addressing the housing crisis, but it’s one that should be very carefully defined by governments. The sooner they get back into this game, the better off we’ll all be. (Fawcett & Logan, 2023)

The Economist has published an article analysing the growing global movement to restrain house prices. “Yes In My Back Yard” (YIMBY) advocates argue that housing shortages are caused largely by laws that control who can build what and where. Zoning and planning laws, they say, are so strict that building new housing is in many places completely illegal, and in almost all it is slow, difficult and expensive.

Not everyone agrees on everything. YIMBYS range from libertarian-leaning tech types through to self-described socialists, such as John Bauters. He is the bicycle-riding mayor of the tiny Californian city of Emeryville, who allows development because it gives him more rich people to tax. Yet all share one belief: more housing needs to be built, especially in the biggest and costliest cities.

At the higher levels of politics at least, Yimbyism is now practically mainstream in California. “Pro-housing policies are pro-job policies,” tweeted London Breed, San Francisco’s mayor, in July. Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, promised to build 3.5m homes in a speech for his election campaign. Across the state such politicians are engaged in an increasingly pitched legislative battle with local politicians, such as city council members and the leaders of suburbs, who are generally determined not to build more.

Yimbyism abounds elsewhere, too. In New York this year Kathy Hochul, the state governor, (unsuccessfully) proposed a radical “upzoning”, approving a greater density of housing in a particular area. She argued that it would allow the construction of 800,000 more homes over a decade, primarily by letting more apartments be built around railway stations in New York City’s suburbs. In Canada, Pierre Poilievre, who leads the opposition Conservative Party, wants the federal government to be able to force municipalities to allow more housing construction. Both major political parties in Britain say they want more houses built, no doubt mindful of an election expected next year. (The Growing Global Movement to Restrain House Prices, 2023)

YIMBY proposals

more apartments built around railway stations in suburbs.

federal government force municipalities to allow more housing construction.

“Pro-housing policies are pro-job policies,”

The plans for The M District Future Growth Node in the Halifax Regional Municipality add housing density to redevelopment of a parking area for a shopping centre that is located next to a main transit hub. This plan resonates with the desire to build more apartments near railway stations in New York suburbs. HRM will begin a second phase of public engagement in Fall 2023 once draft planning documents are ready to be presented for comment and feedback. 

WM Fares Architects,on behalf of Rank Inc., has applied to begin a comprehensive planning process to allow the development of the Mic Mac Mall lands bound by Micmac Boulevard, Horizon Court, and Highway 111, identified on the map below. The proposal includes approximately 2,200 new residential units, plus 400 units for retirement living and additional commercial office and retail space built around the existing mall. (The M District Future Growth Node, n.d.)

(The M District Future Growth Node, n.d.) https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/ehq-production-canada/e9442aaa2ad3ee97b2fe4ff6f6c6f27a7cd81dc6/original/1684439044/9103f74919d6e082614968facf136e66_3D_Context_View.jpg?1684439044 

An earlier post, Housing and Investment, considers the questions: 

• Is housing a basic human right or an investment?
• Can homes and apartments be commodities and at the same time be considered a basic human need?

These concerns need to be included in the development plans for the M District.

Another earlier post, considers the role of Supply or Speculation in the lack of affordable housing.

Supply or Speculation?

The post, Housing and Ideology, suggests the involvement of the government in building housing has been successful in the past and may again offer the possibility of redevelopment of federal land in the centre of HRM that would include non market affordable housing.

Housing and Ideology

The need to address homelessness in HRM will be immediate as winter approaches. The alleviation of the housing crisis is urgent and requires action to maintain the status of HRM as a place to support living and working.

References

Fawcett, M., & Logan, C. (2023, September 7). Pierre Poilievre's housing prescription doesn't add up. National Observer. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/09/07/opinion/pierre-poilievre-housing-prescription? 

The growing global movement to restrain house prices. (2023, September 6). The Economist. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://www.economist.com/international/2023/09/06/the-growing-global-movement-to-restrain-house-prices? 

The M District Future Growth Node. (n.d.). Shape Your City Halifax. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://www.shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/the-m-district-development

Roberts, J. (2021, September 17). Fixing Canada's housing crisis will require bold socialist politics ⋆ The Breach. The Breach. Retrieved September 5, 2023, from https://breachmedia.ca/fixing-canadas-housing-crisis-will-require-bold-socialist-politics/