Increase Affordable Housing Not Homelessness
A recent story in the Kingston Whig-Standard demonstrates the severe impact of the economic downturn on Canadian families. The downturn, coupled with Kingston's historically low vacancy rate for rental units, has many families looking for a place to live with few options available. Family shelters as a consequence have been over flowing in the city over the summer months pushing the shelters over their limit forcing them to turn people away.
We see similar situations across the country particularly in regions that have been hard hit by the downturn. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver have all seen increases in family shelter use and have had to scramble to accommodate the families.
This situation has exposed three problems that have been there for many years but that have been exacerbated by the downturn: 1) millions of Canadians live in poverty; 2) there is a critical shortage of affordable housing in Canada; 3) homelessness is increasing in many cities across Canada.
Today in Canada, 3.4 million Canadians live in poverty and are struggling to maintain or find affordable housing. What’s truly shocking is that between 800,000 and one million of those living in poverty are children, and are living in inadequate housing. This struggle with poverty and to maintain housing has contributed to a dramatic increase in homelessness over the last decade.
In Vancouver, the number of people living on the streets has more then doubled since 2002. In Calgary, despite a decade of strong economic growth, homelessness has risen a staggering 650%.
It is time that the federal government once again support affordable housing for those that are in need. The federal government needs to work with the provinces to develop a national housing and homelessness strategy to ensure that Canadians can rise out of poverty, and have access to affordable housing.