[homeles_ot-l] WI backgrounder: Latest CMHC numbers confirm federal housing cuts will grow deeper as housing needs grow

Tue Jun 5 11:57:10 EDT 2012

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The latest corporate report from Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation, the federal government's housing agency, confirms that the
two-decade erosion of federal affordable housing investments is
continuing to grow worse. The corporate report from CMHC
<http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/corp/about/anrecopl/upload/2012-2016CPSCM
HC_5e-2.pdf>  includes actual results from 2008 to 20010, and plans or
estimates for 2011 to 2016. The latest numbers show that federal housing
program expenses, including the affordable housing initiative, were $3.6
billion in 2010 as the short-term affordable housing investments from
the 2009 stimulus budget reached their peak. However, funding was cut by
more than one-third in 2011, and those cuts will continue to get worse
through 2016.

The CMHC corporate plan also confirms that the number of households
assisted under federal housing programs will be cut by almost 100,000 to
fall from 623,700 households in 2008 to 525,000 households in 2016. That
cut of 16% in the federal of federally-subsidized households comes at a
time when most communities across Canada report that the after-shocks
from the 2008 recession are continuing to cause deep housing and
homelessness distress. For instance, the central affordable housing wait
list for the City of Toronto hit an all-time record of 83,681 households
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/housing/torontos-affordable-housing-w
ait-list-continues-to-set-stunning-new-records/>  in March of 2012.
Toronto's affordable housing wait list has set a new record every month,
year after year, since the fall of 2008.

By 2016, the federal affordable housing initiative will be cut to zero
and combined federal housing investments will have been cut to $1.8
billion - a cut of 52% in just six years. The planned housing cuts come
at the same time that CMHC is reporting that its net income will rise to
$1.6 billion annually by 2016. CMHC generates revenues from commercial
activities, including premiums from the sale of mortgage insurance. The
net income is the surplus generated after expenses are deducted from
revenues.

The financial impact of the federal housing cuts is large. Many of the
federal dollars leverage a dollar or more from provincial and municipal
governments, and a dollar or more from affordable housing providers -
which adds up to an annual loss of $5.6 billion in affordable housing
investments in 2016 and every year after. That cumulative total in lost
funding could fully finance the entire development of more than 22,000
affordable homes annually across Canada.

Federal housing cuts starting in the late 1980s helped trigger a
nation-wide rise in homelessness and a deep and persistent affordable
housing crisis. The majority of precariously-housed Canadian households
are invisible, as set out in the Wellesley Institute's Precarious
Housing in Canada flipsheet
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/publication/precarious-housing-flip-s
heet/> , which includes recent numbers on the 1.5 million households in
core housing need (the federal government's own definition of the most
poorly housed Canadians) and 3.1 million households paying 30% or more
of their income on housing (roughly one-in-four Canadian households).

Housing is one of the most important requirements for a healthy life.
Part one of the Wellesley Institute's Precarious Housing in Canada
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Precarious
_Housing_Part_One.pdf>  sets out the research evidence that links poor
housing and poor health. Other research, including the Street Health
report
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/publication/the-street-health-report/
> , document the devastating health impact of homelessness. The health
impact of precarious housing is called "Canada's hidden emergency" by a
powerful research initiative from the Centre for Research in Inner City
Health at Toronto's St Michael's Hospital
<http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/pdf/crich/housing-vulnerability-and-h
ealth.pdf> , which sets out the data and analysis from Vancouver, Ottawa
and Toronto.   

The Wellesley Institute's Precarious Housing in Canada
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/publication/new-report-precarious-hou
sing-in-canada-2010/>  charts the steady erosion of federal housing
investments since the late 1980s. There have been a few upward blips as
short-term housing investments were announced in 2001, 2006 and 2009.
However, each of these temporary infusions of funding were cut by what
the federal government calls the "scheduled termination" of the
investments - continuing the downward trend. 

In 1993, the federal government stopped permanent funding for new
affordable housing. In 1996, the federal government announced plans to
transfer the administration of most national housing programs to
provincial or territorial jurisdiction. Two years later, the Ontario
government announced a further download of housing to municipalities. By
the mid-1990s, Canada's national housing program launched in 1973 -
which generated more than half a more affordable homes across the
country - had been completely dismantled. That left Canada virtually
alone among the nations of the world without a national housing plan.

In 2009, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate
Housing delivered a scathing final report on his fact-finding mission to
Canada
<http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G09/115/02/PDF/G0911502.pdf?
OpenElement>  (which was made on the invitation of the federal
government) to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009 at the
same time that the council was conducting its Universal Periodic Review
of Canada's compliance with its international housing and other human
rights obligations. The Special Rapporteur concluded that while Canada
has a long history of housing successes, the housing cuts starting in
the late 1980s have effectively prevented Canada from meeting its
international housing obligations.

The 2009 Universal Periodic Review adopted these critical concerns
<http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/pdp-hrp/inter/wrk_grp-eng.pdf>  in its final
set of recommendations to Canada, which included a number targeted to
the cuts to housing funding and programs. In June of 2009, the federal
government issued its formal response to the UN Universal Periodic
Review <http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/pdp-hrp/inter/101-eng.cfm> . It
accepted the housing and homelessness recommendations, and promised to
work more closely with provinces and territories. However, the latest
CMHC corporate report shows that the federal government is not planning
to honour the promises that it has made to the UN Human Rights Council.
Canada faces its second Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights
Council in 2013, and will be called to account for its housing record by
civil society organizations and UN HRC member countries.

Bill C-400, a private member's bill to create a national housing plan
for Canada that meets the growing national need and also Canada's
international housing obligations
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/news/mp-marie-claude-morin-introduces
-bill-c-400-national-housing-act-legislation-in-commons/> , was
introduced in the Commons in February of 2012. The bill calls on the
federal government to convene a process that engages provincial,
territorial, municipal and Aboriginal governments, along with the
community and private sectors, to create a comprehensive national
housing plan within six months. A similar bill in the last Parliament
drew the support of the majority of Members of Parliament including
members of the New Democratic Party, Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois.
The Conservative Party opposed the bill and, although it had passed
second reading and amendment at committee, it died on the order paper
when Parliament was dissolved for the last federal election. The
Conservative government can use its majority to stall progress and votes
on the draft legislation, but a wide array of community and business
groups are urging Members of Parliament to set aside partisan
considerations and are calling for a national housing plan. 

More housing news, research and analysis is available at the Wellesley
Institute website <http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/> . 

***

Michael Shapcott

Director, Housing and Innovation, Wellesley Institute

10 Alcorn Ave Suite 300

Toronto, ON, Canada   M4V 3B2

e: michael at wellesleyinstitute.com

o: 416.972.1010 ex. 231

c: 416.605-8316

w: www.wellesleyinstitute.com <http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/>  

Get the Wellesley Institute newsletter here
<http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/newsletter> . 

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