In total,100,000 fewer Canadians are now living in social housing than in 1999, and that's not because there isn't a need. It's substantiated by the fact that 1.5 million Canadians are at risk of homelessness.
Between 1999 and 2014 Manitoba lost 5,000 units of rent-geared-to-income or social housing as their operating grants expired. Another 35,000 units are at risk, with the loss of these units expected to accelerate starting in 2022.
As people are pushed out of RGI housing they pay more of their income on shelter costs. This in turn pushes up rent, as more and more people vie for so-called affordable housing. In that way, the bottoming out of RGI units does have a serious consequence for the entire housing market. Keep in mind too that the rental universe is shrinking. New construction of rental housing has been very slow, and construction costs are rising.
Our 2015 brief outlines a list of measures that could be used to encourage new construction of rental units. This remains important for poverty reduction because there is currently a bias against new rental construction, which also plays a role in driving up costs.
Rent-geared-to-income units are going to require an ongoing commitment. Very low-income Canadians will continue to use it. The market is not going to solve all the problems in housing, especially for people on low and moderate incomes.
Our analysis of government funding for social housing compared with the tax revenue generated by CMHC's lucrative business in mortgage backing found that while the government provided social housing funding to CMHC of about $18 billion in the last decade, CMHC made over $20 billion. This means that for the past decade, Canada's social housing program has been funded entirely by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's profits, with the federal government netting about $1.3 billion in the process.
We advocate strongly that CMHC profits should be used to fund social housing.