Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Honourable committee members, good afternoon.
I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee. Travelling across this great nation certainly gives one an appreciation of the regional perspectives of the broad range of issues facing Canadians today. For many years now, I too have had the opportunity to travel across this country to better understand regional housing challenges and to meet the families who have purchased their homes through Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat operates throughout Canada with 56 affiliates that provide low-income Canadians the opportunity of affordable home ownership. This includes multiple indigenous families, both on and off reserve. While on the surface housing is just bricks and mortar, it also provides Canadians with the stability they need to access education and training, improve their employment and health outcomes, and ultimately contribute to our country's economy. The true value of affordable housing is the social benefits and opportunities it provides to Canadian families.
Unfortunately, there are a significant number of families who face impossible choices every day of their lives because they lack affordable housing. The high cost of housing relative to a family's income means that they make trade-offs that affect their lives and those of their children with food, clothing, and particularly health care. During one of my visits with a Habitat family, I met a delightful young girl who had previously developed ulcers and needed medication to manage anxiety because her family had moved from temporary housing to temporary housing on a frequent basis. As you can imagine, each of those moves meant new schools, new neighbourhoods, new friends, and new challenges, but Habitat for Humanity and affordable home ownership changes that.
Today, I am pleased to present the important role and impact that Habitat for Humanity plays in Canada's housing continuum, as well as our recommendations for budget 2017. The Habitat for Humanity model is based on a partnership between the family, the community, volunteers, the private sector, and at times modest contributions from various levels of government.
Families not only build, but they also purchase their homes with a mortgage that they can afford. In many cases, Habitat works with local skills and apprentice programs. We build homes in a variety of forms, ranging from single detached homes to large multi-unit developments exceeding 60 or more homes.
Affordable home ownership helps significantly bridge the gap between social housing and market housing. Today, the gap is growing so large that too many families cannot manage it on their own. As such, Habitat for Humanity is a unique bridge that helps them make the dream of home ownership possible in this country.
Affordable home ownership not only breaks the cycle of poverty, but it is also a path for many Canadians into the middle class. For example, 37% of Habitat families come directly from social housing, thereby freeing up much-needed units in both social and rental housing today. Not investing in affordable home ownership puts pressure on other parts of the housing continuum and communities in general.
A recent Boston Consulting Group study shows that there are quantifiable benefits to society as a result of Habitat families having access to affordable home ownership. On average, Habitat generates $175,000 of social benefits to the community for every family that we help. These benefits come in the form of reduced reliance on social housing and food banks, better educational and employment outcomes, and improved health.
Habitat for Humanity's home ownership program has created a social return on investment of more than $500 million over the last 30 years. Our pre-budget submission, and our submission on Canada's national housing strategy, recommends investing in all parts of the housing continuum, including affordable home ownership, which has been largely unaddressed for many years. Therefore, the focus of our recommendation is in this area. As such, we recommend to the committee a $200-million investment in Habitat's national affordable home ownership program over the next eight years through the social infrastructure fund. This will result in the creation of 1,600 new affordable homes for Canadian families, including indigenous families living both on and off reserve, and it will include the renovation of 800 homes in the Far North. These investments can be further supported by providing Habitat with access to low-cost capital and making government land or property available at a low cost, or at no cost.
In addition, these mortgage payments that come from our Habitat families will be reinvested in our fund for humanity, and used to build more homes in perpetuity. In fact, there is a multiplier effect at work. By year eight of the original investment, an additional 160 homes will be created as a result of that investment.
Finally, government funding will also leverage over $200 million in non-government contributions and provide a social return on investment of some $280 million over that eight-year period. Most importantly, it will break the cycle of poverty for families and children, and their families for generations to come.
On a personal note, an investment in affordable housing changes lives. I have been a witness to that multiple times across this country. Remember that little girl, that beautiful little girl with the ulcers and the anxiety disorder? She is now completely healthy as a result of a safe, decent, affordable Habitat home.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for your gracious invitation to present today, and most of all, thank you for your undying commitment to all Canadian families.