Thank you for the question. It's important.
“Affordable housing” is an elastic concept. When you look at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's definition of affordability, it's when you don't spend more than 30% of your income on housing. Different federal programs define affordability in different ways. A federal initiative even bases affordability on the income of all households, not just tenants. With this initiative, we funded housing units in the Montreal region that cost more than $2,250 a month. Affordability is unfortunately far too elastic and does not allow for a clear expression of what we are talking about. What we're talking about is social housing outside of the private market.
In Canada, in the past, what has been funded as social housing is public housing, low-income housing intended for low-income households, meaning people whose income falls below the cap on core needs, which is published annually. These are public services where there are, in general, unionized public servants and where households on the waiting list are answered without discrimination. Unfortunately, the waiting lists are very long.
What's more, there are housing cooperatives, which meet the needs of a mix of populations, both those with modest incomes and those with low incomes, and ultimately enable tenants to also own collectively, which gives them greater control over their living environment. There are also non-profit housing organizations; that formula is a little more flexible and the composition of boards of directors is different, but they are non-profit.
So that's what social housing means. This is non-private market housing where there is no profit motive, where there is a social mission and where affordability is sustainable. In fact, it is perpetual, if we properly protect these groups, as the act does in Quebec. In the past, co-ops and non-profit housing organizations have been protected from resale. Because they have long-term agreements, generally speaking, that protects affordability over time.