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• Official communique from FPT housing ministers' meeting
  
  The official communiqué from the federal provincial and territorial housing ministers is little more than a collective pat on the back. With a record 1.5 million Canadian households in core housing need, and another two million living in substandard housing, the comments about “significant progress” and “good progress” seem to fall short of the reality. The Ministers confirmed that they will keep their housing funding promises for the next five years – even though recent information from the federal government shows that they only managed to commit 3% of the $1.9 billion promised over the last 14 months.
  
  The lack of progress in moving towards a comprehensive and fully-funded national housing plan underlines the urgent need for Bill C-304, draft legislation that is being reviewed by a Commons committee. The bill would require the federal housing minister to consult widely and bring a national housing plan back to Parliament for its review within 180 days.
  
  The full text of the FPT communiqué can be found here.

    -          MIchael
 

• A submission from the Wellesley Institute to the Commons HUMA committee for its review of Bill C-304 - Posted November 6, 2009
   
• WI backgrounder: Ontario government gives housing dollars with one hand, takes away more with the other - Posted October 25, 2009

  The Ontario government is helping households across the province cope with deep and persistent housing insecurity and homelessness by making a big 7% ($52.1 million) cut to spending at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, according to the province's fall economic account. Over the past four years, MAH has seen its annual operating funding cut by $222.4 million (that's almost a quarter of a billion dollars) - adding up to a painfully deep 24% cut since fiscal 2005. Over the past four years, the cumulative spending cuts at MAH add up to $657.1 million. This is enough to finance the construction of  more than 4,380 new affordable homes.

  A new analysis by the Wellesley Institute shows that when it comes to housing, the Ontario government is giving with one hand, but taking away more with the other. According to the government's official spending estimates, the biggest cuts at the MAH this year will be in the affordable housing program - $38.9 million. In particular, the social housing program - which assists some of the poorest households - will take almost all of the spending cuts. Fully 29 of Ontario's 33 ministries will get funding increases in the current fiscal year, according to the economic statement. Only four - finance; northern development, mines, forestry; board of internal economy; and municipal affairs and housing - are taking financial cuts.

  Government officials say that the massive operating funding cuts at MAH are offset by one-time spending including $100 million in fiscal 2007 for social housing repairs; and $585.3 million in the current fiscal year to match federal government housing spending. But those one-time initiatives were supposed to supplement existing spending, not replace current dollars. If the Ontario government had maintained MAH spending at $926 million (the level in fiscal 2005) over the past four years, there would be a cumulative total of $657.1 million more than the actual amount spent by the ministry over those years. That cumulative cut outpaces the one-time amounts added to the ministry - which means less money overall.

  -          Michael

   
• Federal government needs to target housing investments to Canadians who need the help - posted October 16, 2009
   

• News flash: Three of four parties in Canada's Parliament back national housing plan
  Sep 18th, 2009 by Michael Shapcott

  Three of Canada’s four political parties in Parliament – a very solid majority – have backed draft legislation to create a long-overdue and much-needed national housing plan. MP Libby Davies (NDP) has introduced Bill C-304, a private member’s bill that would incorporate Canada’s international housing rights obligations into Canadian law. Members of Parliament from the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois spoke during second reading debate on the legislation on Thursday evening in support of the plan. Even the Conservative MP who spoke during the debate said that his party supports the idea of a national housing plan, though they don’t like the NDP bill. The bill comes back for a vote on second reading around September 30, and if it passes, it goes to committee for consideration, possible amendment and then back to the House for third and final reading. The Wellesley Institute, along with a number of other national organizations, has called for a national housing plan for Canada. We are completing work on a major new report called the State of the Nations’ Housing 2009, which will set out new research and analysis on housing and homelessness across Canada. 
   

• WI backgrounder: Can't find a home? Discrimination in housing fueled by recession... - posted August 23, 2009

  The Ontario Human Rights Commission has released its latest annual report, with a strong focus on discrimination in housing. While everyone is affected by the current recession, not everyone is affected equally. Even before the recession, discrimination in housing was being fueled by a province-wide affordable housing crisis, and all indications are that the problems are growing more intense. Click here for a link to a Canadian Press story that includes quotes from Michael Shapcott of the Wellesley Institute and Sharad Kerur of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association on the critical importance of a rights-based approach to dealing with housing discrimination, and the challenges that are faced by affordable housing landlords that must follow a bewildering array of provincial rules and regulations under the Social Housing Reform Act. "Sorry It's Rented" is a recent report from the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation on discrimination in housing. Video link here.

  -          Michael

   
• WI backgrounder: Canadian governments increase housing investments by 10% in one year - posted June 17, 2009

  Governments at the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels across Canada increased investments in housing by 10.4% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, as compared to the previous fiscal year, according to new figures released today by Statistics Canada as part of their government revenues and expenditures database.  

  This brings consolidated government investments in housing to almost 1% of overall government spending – about the same level as the early 1990s before a massive round of federal and provincial spending cuts and downloading decimated most housing programs and triggered a nation-wide affordable housing crisis and homelessness disaster. Since 1999, most housing advocates have been calling for the One Percent Solution – which would require consolidated government spending to rise by 1% to a total of 2% of overall spending.

  Today’s numbers show that governments are now halfway to the One Percent target, and demonstrates that effective policy work by housing advocates has had a positive effect on ramping up government investments. The 10.4% annual increase in housing investments is the single biggest year-over-year increase among the 16 categories of government spending monitored by Stats Canada. More details on the housing investments, including provincial breakdowns and per capita spending numbers, will be set out in the Wellesley Institute’s State of the Nation’s Housing report card, which is being released in several segments in the coming weeks.

  - Michael
   

• Ontario's affordable housing waiting lists growing painfully long... up to 21 years in Peel region - posted June 17, 2009
  
  Ontario’s affordable housing waiting lists are growing painfully long – up more than 4% over the past year to almost 130,000 households. The average wait for a good place to call home has grown to a staggering 21 years in Peel Region. The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association released its latest annual waiting list survey earlier today. But ONPHA cautions that some households may be discouraged at the long lists, and don’t bother to sign up; and they also warn that the economic recession has likely bumped up the numbers even higher since the survey was completed in January 2009. For instance, Sault Ste. Marie’s affordable housing waiting list has grown by almost 8% in the past four months, and Toronto’s list has grown 2.6%.
  
  - Michael
   

• Recession Relief Coalition: This is what the recession looks like...‏ - posted June 11, 2009

  As Canada's federal government is set to release its first major report on its economic initiatives (including the multi-billion dollar economic stimulus package that was part of the January federal budget), the Recession Relief Coalition has released its own report on "what the recession looks like" this morning. The coalition is a broad-based group of more than 260 organizations and 1,100 individuals across Canada.

  Some key findings from the coalition's research report:
   

• The number of single people on Ontario Works (provincial welfare) reached an all-time record of 130,180 in April, 2009
   

• Ontario's real unemployment rate (the official unemployment rate, plus people who are "discouraged" and have dropped out of the labour market, plus involuntary part-time workers) is now well into the double digits at 13.6% and is a staggering 28% for youth aged 15 to 24.
   

• Credit Canada (which helps people deal with debt) has had a 42% increase in new clients in the past year.
   

• Non-profit and community-based programs and services are being over-whelmed with growing demand; foodbanks in Toronto report that a record one million people were forced to line up for food last year.

  The Recession Relief Coalition sets out a policy agenda that includes increases to federal and provincial income assistance programs (including welfare and employment insurance); plus increased funding for the non-profit sector, including housing and homelessness programs.

  -  Michael
   

• CMHC Private Rental Market Survey:

  Tenants literally being priced out of private rental markets -  - Posted June 9, 2009

  An increasing number of Canadians are being priced out of private rental housing. The latest survey of the private rental market by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (released this morning) shows that nation-wide, the private market rental vacancy rate edged up slightly. While some argue that an increase in vacancies means more choice for renters, and puts pressure on landlords to offer more affordable rents, the same survey shows that average private market rents jumped 2.7% in the past year – more than seven times faster than the rate of inflation. The tiny increase in the number of vacant private rental units provides cold comfort to the hundreds of thousands of Canadians on affordable housing waiting lists (facing a wait of 15 years or more in some communities) since they simply cannot afford the rents that private landlords are charging.  The latest numbers underline the danger of relying on vacancy rates in the private rental market as a reliable indicator of healthy and affordable housing choices for Canadians.

  Renter household incomes have been largely stagnant, or declining, in the past two decades, which means more renters are being squeezed financially and, some are being squeezed right out of the private rental market. From 1992 to 2006, the average private market rent jumped 33% to $755 nationally, according to CMHC (faster than the rate of inflation). Over that same time, the median renter household income was basically stagnant at $29,700. Using the standard affordability calculation, those households could afford to pay $743 monthly. For low and moderate income renter households, well below the median, the steady upward climb in private market rents means less money for other necessities, such as food, medicine, transportation, child care and clothing. Many face economic eviction as they cannot pay the rent bill.

  From 2006 to 2009, rents have increased almost 10% nationally - more than double the rate of inflation, according to the Bank of Canada. Renters are falling farther behind on the key measure that matters: the cost of housing. A slight uptick in the number of vacant units doesn't mean much when the rent for those units is financially out of reach. Policy-makers might be tempted to view the slight increase in vacancies in the private rental market as a sign that a new supply of affordable homes is not required, but the numbers actually suggest that the existing private rental market is not meeting the housing needs of low and moderate-income Canadians. Today's numbers demonstrate that a comprehensive national housing plan that includes both supply and affordability funding and programs, is urgently required. 

  The detailed numbers from CMHC show that while the nation-wide rental vacancy number edged up very slightly, the provinces were evenly split – with five reporting an increase in rental vacancies in the private sector, and five reporting a decrease. Major metropolitan areas also reported a split picture on the vacancy side – 19 reported an increase in vacancies, while 16 reported a drop.

  Across the board, however, at the national level, in every province and in virtually every municipality, private market rents are up – even in those that reported an increase in vacancy rates. For instance, in the Quebec side of Ottawa-Gatineau, the private rental vacancy rate was cut in half – falling from 4.2% to 2% and rents increased 2.4%. Across the river in the Ontario side of Ottawa-Gatineau, the private rental vacancy rate rose to 2.7%, but rents increased almost 4%. Whether vacancy rates go up or down, rents in the private rental market are inexorably rising, and more renter households are struggling to pay their landlord.

  The federal government’s Affordable Housing Initiative, which has recently been extended for five years, uses private market rents as a benchmark to determine affordability. In the past month, the federal government has announced a new round of bilateral housing deals with seven provinces and the three territories (to date) that continue to use private rents to determine affordability. Today’s CMHC numbers show that the private rental market is increasingly inaccessible to low, moderate and middle-income Canadians.

  - Michael

   
• WI backgrounder: Canada to UN rights review - we'll decide which international obligations we'll observe; promises to do better job on housing, homelessness - Posted June 8, 2009
   
  Canada has signed a significant number of international human rights treaties that are legally binding in international law, but the federal government believes that it can pick and choose among its obligations - according to the official document tabled at the United Nations' Rights Council in Geneva today. The good news is that the federal government has accepted its responsibility to take a stronger role in ensuring all Canadians are adequately housed, but the federal government says that companion initiatives to address deep and persistent poverty and income inequality are mostly the responsibility of provinces and territories (and not the national government). The federal government refuses to officially incorporate its international rights obligations into domestic law (even though many other countries, including the United States, do this as a matter of course), it won't ratify a new international agreement that allows for a more robust investigation of human rights violations within Canada and it won't allow Canadian courts to take on cases involving international human rights violations.

  Canada is in the midst of a Universal Periodic Review of all of its international human rights obligations, and member countries of the UN have raised 68 specific concerns about Canada's failure to meet recognized international standards. Two of the main sources of international human rights law are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - both of which have been ratified by Canada, along with a number of other international rights instruments.

  International human rights cover a wide range of economic, social, cultural, civil and political activities (such as the right to vote, and the right not to be imprisoned without trial). The Wellesley Institute focuses much of our work on the internationally-recognized right to adequate housing, the right to health and the rights that relate to persistent inequalities (including poverty).

  On housing and homelessness, the federal government dismantled most of Canada's national housing program in the 1990s, and has replaced it in recent years with a fraying patchwork of short-term and unco-ordinated funding and initiatives at the national and sub-national level. Housing insecurity and homelessness are nation-wide realities. The feds have a series of short-term intiatives, including the Affordable Housing Initiative, the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program and the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, that only reach part of the country and aren't adequately funded. In their response tabled in Geneva today, the federal government has promised to do better on housing and homelessness issues.

  In order for Canada to meet the commitments that it is making today in Geneva to "intensify" its housing and homelessness work, the federal government needs to follow the practical strategy set out by Miloon Kothari, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, whose final report on his official fact-finding mission to Canada contains a series of pragmatic suggestions to bring Canada into compliance with its international housing rights obligations.

  Other national and international NGOs are preparing their own analyses of today's report from Canada to the UN, and we'll post links as they are available.

  - Michael
   

• WI backgrounders: Only a fraction of federal homelessness / housing dollars allocated; feds need to take action to reduce poverty - Posted June 1, 2009
  
  Nine months after the federal government promised $1.9 billion to extend its national homelessness initiative (and a month after current funding for this initiative, plus the federal housing renovation plan and the affordable housing initiative, has expired), the federal government has allocated $81.7 million - about 4% of the total amount promised in September of 2008. Canada’s federal budget of January 29, 2009 promised $2.075 billion over two years. Most of the 2009 federal dollars require matching funding from the provinces, and some of the 2008 dollars require matching funding. Virtually all of the 2009 dollars are tightly tied to specific federal priorities and cannot be used for housing needs identified by local communities. Four months on, the federal government has allocated $884.3 million – about 43% of the total amount promised in January of 2009. Funding agreements have not yet been signed with half the Canadian provinces, including the biggest by population (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba). A new backgrounder from the Wellesley Institute on federal housing promises and allocations is available here.
  
  Meanwhile, as the House of Commons HUMA committee continues its parliamentary hearings on a new national plan to eliminate poverty, the Wellesley Institute has prepared a seven-part action plan, available here, that includes the following recommendations:
  
  First, beef up the role of Statistics Canada to identify and monitor the key indicators. If you can’t measure it, you cannot manage it.
  
  Second, fully engage Canada’s vital social sector – the web of non-profit, charitable and voluntary organizations that provides critical services to individuals, strengthens communities and makes a contribution to the country’s GDP that is six times larger than the auto sector.
  
  Third, implement a national affordable housing plan that ensures that existing homes are affordable and healthy, and that new homes are built to meet the growing needs of Canadians.
  
  Fourth, implement a national community health plan to support expansion of community health centres and supports a nation-wide infrastructure for sharing innovation health practices at the local and regional levels.
  
  Fifth, launch a national campaign to reduce poverty and income inequality. Canada has the second worst record among developed nations, according to an October 2008 survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
  
  Sixth, launch a national campaign to reduce the health inequalities between lower and upper income Canadians and among other groups in our country. We can learn a lot from the decade-old campaign in Great Britain where the latest assessment is: “Much achieved, much still to do”.
  
  Seventh, reverse federal fiscal policy of the past two decades (tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and social spending cuts that primarily hurt the poor) that, according to the OECD, has helped fuel deep and persistent poverty and income inequality in Canada.
  
  The WI’s Michael Shapcott will present the recommendations to the HUMA committee at its Toronto public hearings on Tuesday.
  
  - Michael