Liberals are failing Canadians struggling with the housing crisis

NDP Critic for housing, Jenny Kwan, made the following statement:

“The Prime Minister’s announcement today regarding 10,000 new homes under the Rapid Housing Initiative is yet another example of the Liberal Government’s show-over-substance governing strategy. Those 10,000 units include those announced in the previous parliament - creative counting will not further help those in critical need of a place to live. In Alberta this week, a man struggling with homelessness is believed to have frozen to death. During this pandemic, during a bitterly cold winter, the federal government needs to be doing more.

The truth is that Justin Trudeau only announced 700 additional homes today, while the rest are re-announcements. Let’s be clear - Canada has an affordable housing crisis. These 700 new units will not even address the homelessness crisis in Vancouver, let alone the rest of the country. To have a chance of meeting the Liberal’s own commitment to ending homelessness, housing advocates are calling for the government to build 300,000 deep core social housing units with supports.

While I am glad to see the Prime Minister's announcement that affordable homes are being built, it is important to keep in mind the shortcomings of the RHI as well as those of the Liberal Government’s National Housing Strategy. Considering Canada’s widespread need for housing and limited nature of the program, communities are forced to compete against each other to receive this funding for their desperately-needed affordable housing projects. Rural and remote communities are further disadvantaged, lacking the resources to devote to the complicated and time-consuming application process. Projects that would provide affordable homes to vulnerable individuals are falling to the wayside because the federal government is not there to provide support. In a housing crisis of this scale, the federal government should be doing more to deliver an accessible application process that allows all projects to be considered and provide the funding needed to get these projects off the ground.”