Poilievre’s Housing Hell video offers a lousy, analysis of our housing crisis

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I hope you don't consider me publicizing the NFU's rally on Nov 22 as an "attack"?

I summarized what was in multiple reports and described what I saw in the photo.

What part did you consider an attack?

As I learned from grass farmer when I posted information directly from the nfu website, the nfu is sacrosanct, they are not to be criticized.
Grass farmer accused me of every crime in the book for the sin of posting the publicly available profiles of their executive. Copied directly from the nfu's website.
Profiles where the members unapologetically brag about their anti-capitalist, pro Marxist and socialist agendas.

So, instead of reflecting on the organization they are members of and are defending at all costs, they accuse anyone who exposes them of attacking them.
Grass farmer considered it a personal attack on his friend when I reposted his public profile.
Reminds me a lot of the violence regarding drawing pictures of muhammad. Religious fanatics in both cases.

[cropgrower]

As i know notting about nfu i decided to do a bit of looking , stumbled on this ! is this a lesser informed arena ?!?! that needs to be educated ? forgot to add that name calling and insults is a great way to get the message out LOL , wrote by guess who LOL LOL

[AlbertaFarmer5]

If the author of that piece is who you think it is, then has he has been spectacularly successful in his goal to not have the most followers on social media. Down to one follower( Thanks agstar).

Set the bar extremely high, and exceeded even those lofty expectations.

Putting the silly in agrisilly one LOL at a time.

[chuckChuck]

[url]https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/november-2023/housing-crisis-renters/[/url]

Let’s stop calling it a housing crisis

It’s not like the housing market ever worked for low-income renters, and it won’t until we incentivize the building of units that they can afford.

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by Ren Thomas November 15, 2023


In the past couple of years, we have heard the housing crisis framed as something new – as if for generations the housing market has always worked well but now suddenly has ceased to function. In response, the federal government and proponents of private developer-based solutions have been advocating for a massive increase in housing supply
But this framing of the issue misses the underlying struggle that renters, particularly low-income renters, have faced for decades: policies and programs do not adequately address a housing market that is heavily biased toward capital accumulation for wealthy individuals and corporations.
Last year BMO reported that we were building housing at rates that meet the number of households formed every year from 2002-2016, when we saw a surge in immigration. But the units built aren’t affordable to those who need them the most, and increasingly they are being used as investments to increase wealth among homeowners, corporate and financialized landlords through real estate investment trusts and other investment funds.
Look more closely at landlords in Canada, says Ricardo Tranjan, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In his new book The Tenant Class he says 22 per cent of rental units are owned by wealthy families. Corporations own 20 per cent of them, and financial landlords own eight per cent of them. For these property owners, maximizing profit is the ultimate goal.
“Wages are too low. Rents are too high,” Tranjan writes. “And the notion that something is out of order with the rental market and that some genius technical solution can fix the problem is, at best, deceptive. Markets are doing what markets do: transfer money from workers to the capital-owning class. As far as the landlord class is concerned, the rental market is working just fine.”
This maximization of profit comes at the expense of tenants. The 2019 National Housing Strategy Act recognizes housing as a human right, and the National Housing Strategy is required to “focus on improving housing outcomes for persons in greatest need.”
Yet, nearly halfway through the 10-year strategy, most of the housing it has generated is not affordable to those in core housing need according to a 2022 report ([url]https://assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sites/place-to-call-home/pdfs/analysis-affordable-housing-supply-created-unilateral-nhs-programs-en.pdf[/url]) by the National Housing Council Working Group on Improving the National Housing Strategy. Living in core housing need means living in unaffordable units, units that need major repairs, or units that are not the right size for their household.
For decades, census data has shown that renters have much lower incomes than owners and are much more likely to be in core housing need. We have been able to delve much deeper into these numbers for the 2016 and 2021 census years through a new research project called HART – Housing Assessment Resource Tools ([url]https://hart.ubc.ca/[/url]) – at the University of British Columbia.
In 2016, single mothers, refugee claimants, and new migrants led the household types with the highest core housing needs. Their incomes were consistently lower than heads of other household types. In 2021, the same groups dominated and were joined by households headed by people over age 85 – though the percentage in core housing need had declined, likely because that year many of these households may have received CERB or other pandemic-related benefits. HART helps us see the deficit of affordable housing in 2016 and 2021 (figures 1 and 2).


We can see that the low-income group, which could afford monthly rents of only $881 in 2016 and $1,050 in 2021 at 30 per cent of their incomes, is by far the largest group in core housing need. The need is also greatest among single-person households in the low-income and very low-income groups.
Yet these groups barely benefit from any new supply because it is priced for the group that needs it the least: households above the median income.
In 2016 ([url]https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/170913/dq170913a-eng.htm[/url]), that median income was $70,332, and in 2021 ([url]https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110019001[/url]) it was $78,200. That would translate into paying $1,758/month in 2016 and $1,955/month in 2021 if households were paying 30 per cent of their pre-tax incomes. These are values for Canada; HART also allows for city-specific data to be easily visualized.
Only a fraction of units ([url]https://assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sites/place-to-call-home/pdfs/analysis-affordable-housing-supply-created-unilateral-nhs-programs-en.pdf[/url]) that are affordable to people in core housing need have been produced through the housing strategy’s major funding programs, the Rental Construction Financing Incentive, the National Co-Investment Fund, and the Rapid Housing Initiative.
Only four per cent of units built through the Rental Construction Financing Incentive would lift a lone-parent household out of core housing need; with the National Co-Investment Fund, it’s 49 per cent of units. The Rapid Housing Initiative has fared better because the units it funds must not have rents higher than 30 per cent of the occupant’s income. This latter initiative was duly expanded in the 2022 federal budget.
Why are we using such a large percentage of public funding to build housing that isn’t affordable to those who need it most? Why are we requiring these units stay affordable for only 10 years? Because this solution appeals to private market developers and to CMHC, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The National Housing Strategy’s Housing Accelerator Program ([url]https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/funding-programs/all-funding-programs/housing-accelerator-fund/housing-accelerator-fund-small-rural-north-indigenous[/url]) was introduced in March to help municipalities increase housing supply.
London ([url]https://london.ctvnews.ca/london-ont-lands-74m-from-feds-to-accelerate-new-housing-construction-1.6560625[/url]), Ont., and Halifax ([url]https://globalnews.ca/news/10021228/federal-government-funding-new-halifax-housing/[/url]) recently received this funding with a list of requirements to amend their land use by-laws, official plans, and development approvals processes (e.g. increasing density along main streets and in residential zones, shorter application approval times for new housing projects).
Again, these changes seem to imply that the problem is merely supply, that if we just build more units, and more quickly, we won’t have an affordability problem.
So we still aren’t concentrating on that low-income group.
Of the 2,000 new housing units London will build, 600 will be supportive housing (e.g. for people experiencing homelessness, people with disabilities). In Halifax, 8,866 new units will be built ([url]https://storeys.com/halifax-housing-accelerator-fund-agreement/[/url]), and the Affordable Housing Grants program will be expanded – but there is no mention of how many new units will be affordable. For other cities that receive this funding, will new units added to single-family lots be affordable? It’s unlikely unless the municipalities require it.
Clearly, the federal government is not incentivizing the production of units for the types of households that need them most.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

How did you transport yourself from Sask to Ottawa a few months ago to attend a conference about climate which didn't occur until late November?

[cropgrower]

No doubt traveled the same as all the other climate hypocrites , thankfully lots are wakeing up to the do as i say not what i do puppets/parrots

[AlbertaFarmer5]

The NFU had everyone out for a rally on parliament hill on Nov 22.
Had national media coverage and features on government websites it was such a well publicized event.
Looks like they must have had some sort of voluntary crowd control as I only counted less that 20 people for the big photo opp.

Looked like some might be street people hoping for free meals like when the Freedom Convoy was there but hard to tell who was who.

What is the difference between a rally and an occupation?
How many NFU members at this rally had their bank accounts frozen and are facing charges?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I didn't actually read Chuck's cut and paste. I'm waiting for the Cliff's notes version.
But I did read the first line:
It’s not like the housing market ever worked for low-income renters, and it won’t until we incentivize the building of units that they can afford
This issue has always struck me as odd. Regulations have made construction of even the most basic structure unnecessarily expensive to meet energy efficiency, safety, fire codes, etc. Some probably have merit, some are typical bureaucracy in action.

But, the net result is we have working homeless people literally living in their cars because they can't afford homes. It seems to me that building a modest sized house that meets the fire, safety and energy efficiency standards of say 50 years ago, would still be far safer, more energy efficient and less of a fire risk than having family sleeping in an idling car through long Canadian winters.

[Taiga]

Can’t wait for this corrupt bunch to be turfed

[cropgrower]

Freeloaders vote for the criminals , thats what we are up against