Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Jody Ciufo. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association. With me today is Dallas Alderson, our manager of policy and programs.
For over 40 years the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association has been the collective voice for the full range of affordable housing issues and solutions across Canada. Our members come from all parts of the affordable housing sector and include non-profit housing providers, municipalities, provincial and territorial governments, non-profit support services, and businesses. We speak for those who believe in and work towards safe, adequate, secure, and affordable housing for all Canadians.
On their behalf, I want to focus today on three main points from our brief. First, I want to acknowledge and thank you for your past federal funding. Second, I want to tell you that this funding has made a real difference in making housing more affordable for people across the country. Last, I want to urge you not to turn your backs on this success; I ask that the federal government keep funding affordable housing and working to end homelessness.
First of all, thank you for the $2 billion investment in affordable housing over the past two years that was made as part of the economic stimulus measures. Our members--housing providers, municipalities, and provinces--are doing as much as they can, as fast as they can, to build and repair affordable housing, because the need in our communities is so high.
We value as well the significant investment in three major federal programs: the affordable housing initiative, which is a major source of capital funding for building new affordable housing; the CMHC renovation programs, often referred to as RRAP, which offer funding to preserve the housing that already exists; and finally, the homelessness partnering strategy, which puts money in the hands of communities to deal with the still increasing numbers of individuals and families who are homeless. Together, all three total almost $400 million each year.
However, the backbone of the federal government's long-term predictable investment in affordable housing is approximately $2 billion each year. This funding lets housing providers offer rents that are lower than market value. Through long-term operating agreements with social housing providers, federal subsidies allow over 600,000 households to access affordable housing.
My second point is that this funding has made a tangible and quantifiable difference to Canada: to our economy, to our society, and to our citizens. We have time for only the briefest of examples, but in Toronto, federal homelessness funding let more than 2,400 people move into permanent housing directly from Toronto's streets, parks, squats, and ravines, and a year later, 91% of them are still in their homes through the city's Streets to Homes program. That was done through the assistance of federal funding.
In 2006, the most recent period for which data is available, 1.5 million households, or almost 13% of all households in Canada, lived in core housing need. Core housing need means that these are people who can't find a home that costs less than 30% of their household income, that doesn't need major repairs, and that actually has enough bedrooms for everyone who lives there. While the number is still far too high, I want to tell you that it's almost 1% lower in 2006 than it was in 2001, and that's in large part due to the federal investment I've just described. These programs have made a real difference, and they need to be sustained, integrated, and in some cases bolstered to ensure that these gains aren't lost.
And so we come to our third point, which is to urge MPs to keep the success going and to maintain federal funding of affordable housing and homelessness programs. The economic downturn is all the more reason not to cut federal support for these programs. There is normally a lag between a downturn and the full effects of unemployment on people's living conditions, as moving from our homes is the absolute last resort for most of us. It's essential that those gains not be erased. While the overall decrease in the rate is good, some of us still are more likely than others to live in core need: lone-parent families, aboriginal households, and immigrants.
Finally, homelessness is still on the rise, despite the gain in core housing. It has already been announced that some programs are going to end. This is worrying us because the real backbone, as we've said, that $2 billion worth of long-term operating agreements, absolutely needs to continue.
These expiry agreements are already running out. For instance, the Métis Urban Housing Corporation has had to sell 30 units that they owned in order to have enough money to fund repairs to the things they already have. So 30 households now have had to leave safe, secure, affordable housing. This is the tip of the iceberg. Without the continued funding, this will happen across Canada.
Thank you very much.