Canada's NDP

Skip to main content

November 22nd, 2018

NDP STATEMENT ON NATIONAL HOUSING DAY

NDP Housing Critic Sheri Benson issued the following statement:

“On National Housing Day, New Democrats call on the Liberal government to ensure that everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home.
They can best do this by accelerating funding to increase affordability and by enacting legislation that would recognize the right to housing, including the creation of a National Housing Advocate.
As we approach another cold Canadian winter, there is no denying that the 235,000 Canadians who experience homelessness each year, along with the 1.7 million households living in unsafe, inadequate or simply unaffordable housing, cannot afford to wait any longer.
Women and children, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, youth and older adults, and members of racialized communities are over-represented amongst people in need of better housing.
One in seven users of a homeless shelter is a child, and family use of shelters has jumped by 50% in the last decade. The Liberal government’s response is too timid, and too slow: aiming to reduce chronic homelessness by just 50% in 10 years, with most of the spending in their National Housing Strategy delayed until after the next election.
New Democrats stand with housing and human rights advocates who are urging this government to fix the housing crisis now.
If, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said, “housing rights are human rights,” then Canada must move immediately to ensure that these rights are protected in legislation - without reservation, and without delay.”