Introduction: Canada’s Housing System

What is our 'housing problem,' the current 'housing crisis'?
Is it really 'housing affordability'?
Why after 85 years of Canadian housing legislation and programs (the 1935 Dominion Housing Act), do we still have housing problems?

Session 1 Powerpoint presentation: PDF of Session 1 Powerpoint 28-April-2020

Session 1 Agenda

6pm. Class begins at 6pm. An email will provide the information for accessing Zoom, providing the necessary password.
8pm. Greg Suttor, PhD (Planning) will join us for a discussion and Q&A PDF for Discussion with Greg
- Brief introduction: Greg’s work at Wellesley on supportive housing and mental health, and his prior housing experience (e.g., Toronto’s homelessness task force).
- Brief discussion of social housing ‘turning points,’ Table 1.1 in his book (your reading for next week)
- Broad themes in social housing’s policy history, pp.186-195 in his book
- Toronto housing trends (very general): social and market rental stock issues (e.g., loss of units to AirB&B, etc.); has the federal government secured existing social housing RGI as agreements expire?

Greg Suttor was a Senior Researcher at the Wellesley Institute over the past five years, now retired, focusing primarily on housing policy and supportive housing. An independent consultant for three years, he was previously a housing researcher and policy advisor for Toronto municipal governments. He was also a policy advisor/researcher at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, special task forces, and the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership (the 'three cities’ in Toronto analysis), as well as being active in provincial, national and local affordable housing organizations. He has a PhD in planning from the University of Toronto, on the policy history and impacts of Canadian social housing. He has a strong interest in the relationships between housing policy, housing market realities, social policy, and urban well-being. He believes we can learn a lot from our own history and from comparisons to other times and places.

Readings

Carver, Humphrey (1948) “The Ultimate Housing Problem,” final chapter from his Houses for Canadians: A Study of Housing Problems in the Toronto Area, U of T Press, pp. 121-128. PDF How much of this concluding chapter of a 1948 book could be written today? What is the “ultimate housing problem” according to Carver? What has changed in 70 years and what is similar? Carver was a professor of social work at the UofT at the time.
Chisholm, S. & J.D. Hulchanski (2019) “Canada’s Housing Story,” Chapter 4 of Shaping Futures: Changing the Housing Story, Australia, Britain, Canada. Edited by D. Maclennan, H. Pawson, K. Gibb, S. Chisholm, D. Hulchanski. Glasgow: Policy Scotland, University of Glasgow, 21-28. PDF Our housing policies are no longer fit for purpose. We need a new dialogue that includes younger households, environmental imperatives, and tools to fight inequalities. Housing is well placed to support social inclusion.
Advocacy Centre Tenants Ontario [a legal clinic] (2019) We Can't Wait: Preserving Our Affordable Rental Housing in Ontario, Toronto: ACTO. PDF Governments are making it easier for developers to build more housing, but we can’t wait for the private sector to decide whether they will build the affordable housing we need.
Marcuse, P. (2012) “A Critical Approach to Solving the Housing Problem,” Chapter 13 in N. Brenner, P. Marcuse & M. Mayer, eds, Cities for people, not for profit: Critical urban theory and the right to the city. Routledge. PDF Critical theory defines and address an issue like the housing crisis in three steps: expose, propose, and politicize. In the housing system, the three pillars of the housing crisis are: reliance on the private profit-oriented market; the restricted role for government; the myth of speculative homeownership. How similar are the U.S. and Canadian housing systems?
Clapham, D. (2019) “Why Housing Policy Needs to be Remade,” Chapter 1 of his book, Remaking Housing Policy: An International Study. Routledge. PDF The key elements of neoliberalism that are important in housing policy, and have been applied to housing systems: privatisation, commodification, marketisation, fnancialisation, individualisation. The result: increasing polarisation of housing circumstances across different social classes and ethnic groups, reflecting and contributing to growing wealth and income inequalities.
Marcuse, P. (2017) After Exposing the Roots of Homelessness – What? Urban Geography, 38(3), 357-359. PDF "So why do we still have homelessness… It is not lack of knowledge… Why so little action, then?"

Supplemental (optional) Readings

Hulchanski, J.D. (2005) Rethinking the Housing Affordability Challenge, Discussion paper, Government of Canada’s “Canadian Housing Framework Initiative” consultation process. PDF From 15 years ago: Have things changed?
Sousa, J. (2013) “Canadian Public Housing Policy and Programs,” Chapter 1 of his Building a Co-operative Community in Public Housing: The Case of the Atkinson Housing Co-op, UofT Press, 11-32. PDF This chapter has a focus on Canada's public housing program, 1949 to the 1970's (e.g., which is much of the housing that the Toronto Community Housing Corporation currently manages).
Hulchanski, J.D. (2007) Canada’s Dual Housing Policy: Assisting Owners, Neglecting Renters, Toronto: UofT, Centre for Urban and Community Studies, Research Bulletin #38. 8 pages. PDF
Bacher, J.C. (1993) “Canadian Housing Policy in Perspective,” Chapter 1 in his Keeping to the Marketplace: The Evolution of Canadian Housing Policy, Montreal: McGill-Queen's U Press, 3-36. PDF Full Book
Hulchanski, J. D. (2002) Housing Policy for Tomorrow’s Cities, Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, Discussion Paper F27. PDF
Hulchanski, J.D. (1986) "The 1935 Dominion Housing Act: Setting the stage for a permanent federal presence in Canada's housing sector," Urban History Review, 15(1), 19-39. PDF

Supplemental (optional) Readings (Part II):

The Trudeau Government’s National Housing Strategy, 2017–2029

Canada (2017) Canada’s National Housing Strategy: A Place to Call Home. Ottawa: CMHC. PDF
Hulchanski, J.D. (2017) “No, Ottawa has not put forth a national housing strategy,” The Globe and Mail, Dec. 4, op-ed. Weblink
Canada Parliamentary Budget Office (2019) Federal Spending on Housing Affordability (an analysis of the National Housing Strategy), Ottawa PDF