I will be fairly straightforward and simple.
For decades, the CMHC had a definition of affordability that it stuck to. First it was 20%, then 25% and then 30%. Since the eighties, the definition of affordable housing has been 30% of before-tax income.
I'm part of the housing assessment resource tools project, which is based at UBC. We have done analysis of housing needs for every city, region, province, territory and the country as a whole. The City of Vancouver, for instance, uses this analysis. We're working with 14 different municipalities across Canada to integrate this analysis.
There are three categories. There are very low-income people. That's a lot of the people we've been hearing about today. Their incomes are less than 20% of the median income. Usually they are on ODSP, Ontario Works or whatever the equivalent is in other provinces.
There are low-income people who are generally dependent on minimum wage and earning between $15,000 and $30,000 a year. They can afford maybe $750 a month.
Then there are moderate-income households who are sometimes in housing need, particularly if they're larger families. Depending on the city, you're talking about $1,085 a month in rent. Those are the households that are in housing need and that the national housing strategy is committed to focusing on. That's what human rights obligations say you should be focusing on.
The definition of affordability is not the most complicated problem you're going to be dealing with.