Home Inspection

For too many people, the “housing crisis” is more than just a well-worn phrase. Young adults are increasingly finding themselves priced out of owning a home. Rents have become exorbitant. New homeowners are taking on growing levels of mortgage debt. Affordability burdens even moderate-income households, and for low-income individuals the situation can be dire. As housing costs rise, so too does the number of people experiencing homelessness.

Two new books examine this situation from differing but complementary perspectives: Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis, by the social policy researcher Carolyn Whitzman, considers the shortage of affordable homes while offering potential solutions from Europe and Asia. And Ending Homelessness in Canada: The Case for Homelessness Prevention, a collection of essays edited by James Hughes, the president and CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, in Montreal, analyzes the causes of homelessness and some strategies to curb the problem; its contributors include social workers, researchers, and leaders in the sector. Not surprisingly, both books argue that a greater supply of affordable housing is essential.

While some, including the leader of the federal Conservative Party, are quick to blame record-high immigration levels for the current housing crisis, the true causes of the trouble are much more complex. Policy failures dating back to the 1970s had a lasting impact on housing supply across the country. Whitzman thoughtfully traces these policy missteps and their repercussions. Yes, immigration is a contributing factor, but so are tax incentives on housing construction, bank rates, infrastructure spending, the availability of government subsidies, and regulations governing landlord-tenant relations.

Whitzman is highly critical of the “financialization” of housing: the practice of maximizing profit from speculation on owned and rental housing. Rather than viewing shelter as essential infrastructure, Canadians tend to treat it as a vehicle to build wealth. Governments, companies, pension and investment funds, individual households, and unscrupulous landlords all chase profits and, in the process, drive up costs. It’s notable, however, that one contributor in Ending Homelessness in Canada sees some financialization as a good thing.

Michael L. Rice chairs the First Nations Market Housing Fund, which is dedicated to fostering home ownership within Indigenous communities. Rice emphasizes that homes are not only spaces for family life; they can also serve as financial assets. He argues that home ownership can help enable members of First Nations to build financial independence. While some have told him that purchasing a home is “the white man’s way,” he counters by saying, “We should do things in a sustainable way to benefit all and therefore not concentrate solely on one segment in the on‑reserve housing market.”

Homelessness is driven by more than just a lack of affordable housing. Whitzman highlights several priority populations at heightened risk, including victims of intimate partner violence, those recently released from incarceration, young Canadians leaving government care, individuals with mental illness, Indigenous people, seniors, recent immigrants and refugees, and those with disabilities. Several essays in Ending Homelessness in Canada detail the systemic gaps that leave these groups vulnerable to homelessness. Marie McGregor Pitawanakwat, for example, describes how the long history of Indigenous self-reliance was upended by colonization. Similarly, Michael Rice notes how “the effect of residential and Indian Day School has destroyed a great deal of intellectual and life skill capacity in the First Nation world.” Elsewhere, Eric Latimer, a research scientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, contributes a rigorous, research-based look at homelessness among individuals with mental illness. He explains why those with schizophrenia; bipolar, borderline personality, and hoarding disorders; and substance addictions often struggle to care for themselves, highlighting the critical need for community support.

Of course, many individuals at risk of homelessness don’t receive the support they need. With no malicious intent, government agencies, like youth services, correctional facilities, and hospitals, frequently discharge clients directly to emergency shelters or the streets. In his concluding essay, Hughes identifies three key factors contributing to this practice: limited time and resources for caseworkers, the absence of a clear organizational mandate to prevent homelessness, and the complex needs of certain clients. He argues that government institutions need a mandate to prevent homelessness, alongside the provision of proper assessments and tailored support for those at risk.

That’s easier than it sounds. One of the most admirable qualities of Latimer’s chapter is his thorough analysis of the challenges and restrictions society faces in trying to prevent homelessness. “The government could build so much housing, and hire so many social workers to monitor every single person’s ability to cover the next month’s rent or mortgage payment, that no‑one could possibly become homeless,” he argues. “But aside from any considerations of privacy and civil liberty, such an approach to preventing homelessness would cost so much to implement that it clearly would not make sense.”

Both Home Truths and much of Ending Homelessness in Canada could use more of this type of honesty. Many of the solutions proposed by these authors are at best controversial — even as they’re framed as obvious and straightforward. Whitzman, for instance, advocates for zoning reform that would allow the construction of more non-market housing and walkable, transit-oriented developments, using case studies from Japan and New Zealand to illustrate that this kind of policy making can reduce housing costs and homelessness. Excellent — except that she fails to discuss the political culture in Canada that would fiercely oppose such changes. Consider that Calgary’s city council recently voted in favour of blanket rezoning despite intense opposition from Calgarians. Opponents to the measure have vowed political retribution at the next municipal election and, in the meantime, are using restrictive covenants to push back against the reforms.

Whitzman’s primary answer to this kind of NIMBYism is for governments to restrict residents’ ability to raise objections to nearby developments. In other words, remove the forums through which residents oppose new housing, and NIMBYism will go away. With such framing, she fails to address legitimate democratic concerns as well as the potentially significant political backlash. By offering solutions without fully acknowledging the accompanying challenges, she misses a crucial part of the analysis. If we are truly committed to fixing the housing crisis and preventing homelessness, we must appreciate the limitations of our proposed strategies.

One of Whitzman’s best and least contentious ideas is that certain housing solutions should be “for Indigenous, by Indigenous.” In the same vein, two chapters in Ending Homelessness in Canada describe examples of Indigenous-led organizations using ingenious strategies to provide housing. In one of them, Robert Byers recounts the transformation of Regina’s Namerind Housing Corporation into a leading Indigenous-owned provider of affordable housing. When Byers joined the organization in 2005, it faced dwindling federal funding, and much of its housing stock was uninhabitable. Recognizing the need for change, he and his team adopted businesslike strategies to ensure viability. Namerind became a property manager for private-sector buildings, opened a downtown parking lot, purchased a shopping mall, and started a pharmacy. These ventures diversified Namerind’s revenue streams, allowing it to reinvest in affordable housing; it currently provides 275 homes to individuals and families.

Rice’s chapter explains how the Kahnawà:ke First Nation south of Montreal restructured its housing department to operate more like a business, along with the inventive strategies it implemented to increase affordable housing in the community. Using government funds as seed capital, leaders established a caisse populaire, an independent financial institution that offers inexpensive loans, tailored to Mohawk values, to finance the purchase and construction of homes. The local council’s housing program also developed a continuum of options, aiming to help residents move from social housing to home ownership. It introduced initiatives to provide options for seniors, individuals with mental illness, and single parents, while also offering life skills programs.

Both Byers and Rice illustrate that it’s possible for organizations to empower themselves to provide housing, independent of the government. By contrast, most of the proposed remedies in Home Truths and Ending Homelessness in Canada depend on government intervention. While the participation of government is certainly crucial, the complex and conflicting political landscape in Canada makes it unreliable.

Ultimately, these books succeed at what they’re trying to do: educate their readers about the causes of the housing crisis and homelessness while proposing a range of potential directions for future debate and discussion. Readers are thus equipped to make informed calls for change — or to roll up their sleeves and take action themselves.