Canada's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), says there will be no meaningful improvement to housing affordability as long as the Liberal government excludes the expansion of public housing as part of the solution.
I think we could do well with both. We build less public housing than virtually all of our peers. Our housing deficit is such that we need to do everything. I wouldn’t be so sure half measures will be enough.
Furthermore, I think we need to remove the stigma around public and non-market housing. In Scandinavian countries, public housing is for normal, even upper middle class families. These homes are beautiful and comfortable. If you want to stay out of the housing market, you can. Canadians are desperate to enter the housing market as a matter of dignity, as if they’re pathetic failures, less fully human, if they don’t own. It’s because of this unnecessary stigma in Canada that public housing often has the reputation of a ghetto for undesirables.
I think we could do well with both. We build less public housing than virtually all of our peers. Our housing deficit is such that we need to do everything. I wouldn’t be so sure half measures will be enough.
Furthermore, I think we need to remove the stigma around public and non-market housing. In Scandinavian countries, public housing is for normal, even upper middle class families. These homes are beautiful and comfortable. If you want to stay out of the housing market, you can. Canadians are desperate to enter the housing market as a matter of dignity, as if they’re pathetic failures, less fully human, if they don’t own. It’s because of this unnecessary stigma in Canada that public housing often has the reputation of a ghetto for undesirables.