Thank you, Chair and honourable committee members, for the opportunity to appear today as part of the pre-budget consultations in advance of budget 2026.
My name is Angus Knowles. I'm board chair of Options for Homes, a non-profit developer that has spent 30 years delivering ownership housing for working households priced out of the traditional market. Across 14 communities, Options has helped create pathways to home ownership for more than 3,300 families.
I want to begin with a story about Angella, a nurse working in Etobicoke and a single mother of three. She works hard, with two jobs, and earns a steady income, but home ownership for her family is still out of reach. The down payment barrier alone meant she could not see a path to staying close to her work, her children's school and her support network. Through Options for Homes financing programs, combined with federal mortgage support, that path towards stability and home ownership became possible. This opportunity was transformative for her. Angella became the first in her family to own a home in Canada.
Now, Angella's story is not unusual. At Options we see versions of this over and over. It reflects a growing group of essential workers—nurses, teachers, emergency service workers and others—who do not qualify for traditional subsidies and yet cannot afford ownership in the communities they serve. They did exactly what we asked people to do—study, work, contribute and start to build a life—but with today's heavy upfront costs and limited livable options, we are leaving our working neighbours behind. This is not just a housing problem; it's also a social and economic one. When our skilled and essential workers can't afford to live close to where they work, the entire city suffers. A sense of belonging in our cities is lost, employers lose access to talent, and people lose confidence that hard work will lead to a secure future in Canada's cities.
At Options for Homes, we have seen these pressures intensify dramatically with the communities we serve. Our model combines non-profit housing delivery with down payment support. We reinvest project surpluses into future homes, but the households now seeking help from us are no longer only those earning $40,000 to $60,000 a year. Increasingly, they are earning in the range of $70,000 to $170,000, which, in Toronto, for example, still isn't enough to save a down payment to buy due to high rents and a high cost of living. As a result, our wait-list has grown to a record of 30,000 people. I want to emphasize that this is not just a young professional issue; it's affecting people in their forties too.
Our data shows that it can take up to 17 years for this group to save a traditional market down payment, depending on what city they live in. That delay affects when people form families, where they live, their old age security and whether they can stay in the communities that depend on them. Thirty-three per cent of the homeowners we have assisted say they would have left their communities if not for our programs, which supported their path to home ownership.
Federal policy has rightly supported rental supply, but ownership options for middle-income essential workers that help them establish more stable roots close to where they work remain largely overlooked. That is why our main ask is that budget 2026 recognize workforce home ownership as a national housing priority to sustain the social and economic health of our cities. Non-profits and public agencies have the models, but they need stronger supports to scale the program and bridge that gap.
Second, we ask for immediate delivery tools for non-profits building workforce ownership housing, including low-cost construction financing, capital support and access to free or low-cost public land where appropriate.
Third, outside of the budget itself, policy direction should recognize down payment support provided by non-profit housing providers for ownership purposes as bona fide equity, not debt. Right now there is an OSFI guideline that does not recognize our down payment loans to purchasers as equity, which significantly limits what qualified purchasers can receive from regulated lenders for their mortgages. A policy direction recognizing non-profit shared equity as vital support for workforce ownership stability sends a clear signal to regulators and financial institutions, and it allows non-profit supports to go further for qualifying households.
Basically, we are asking for the same treatment of down payment support that is provided to government agencies, but extended to non-profit housing providers. This creates an easy, non-cost policy opportunity that could unlock significant impact without budget allocation.
You can find more detail in our additional information package.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.