Good morning.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak with you today.
I'm going to start by echoing Mike Moffat's testimony to you from the other day. He said:
a housing target is a means. It's not an end. It's not a goal. A young family in search of a home does not care how many housing starts there were last year. They care about finding a home that they can afford in their community and that meets their needs.
A fundamental flaw in the federal government's approach to housing policy is a lack of clarity on their priorities and the outcomes that they want to achieve. Most governments tend to view success in policy through the outputs of that policy, such as the amount of money they spend and the number of units started, not whether or not affordability has improved for people.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but housing affordability in Canada has deteriorated for nearly every income quintile in the country over the course of the first national housing strategy. Something clearly isn't working.
In addition to leading the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, I also co-chair the National Housing Council. The council published a report proposing an outcomes framework for federal housing policy and also sent a letter to Minister Robertson framing an outcomes-focused approach for a new national housing strategy. I'm happy to send copies of these documents to the committee, if you wish.
In both of these documents, the council argues that housing policy focused on outcomes allows the government to target policy more precisely and have greater clarity on which options they have available to them. The kind of housing supply and policy needed to improve affordability for the young family in Mike's example will be different from the measures needed to deliver supportive and deeply affordable housing to people at risk of experiencing homelessness. In both cases, there can be both demand- and supply-side measures governments can take. Reducing core housing need, for example, could be accomplished with enhancements to the Canada housing benefit or new supply, or a combination of the two. Reducing homelessness will require deeply affordable and supportive housing, along with enhancements to the Canada housing benefit in alignment with the provinces.
Given many competing demands on the federal treasury, it's also critical for the federal government to have clear priorities. I'll remind the committee that the housing policy of Canada is laid out in the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act. That act says the “progressive realization of the right to...housing” is the housing policy of Canada. That commitment requires that the Government of Canada prioritize reducing homelessness and core housing need as outcomes of its policy.
In my view, this prioritization should not be read as the federal government focusing exclusively on deeply affordable and non-market housing. Housing is a system and what happens for the family in Mike's example will eventually impact what happens for a family in core housing need. Housing is a system and needs to be treated holistically.
In my view, getting precision on the desired outcomes and priorities for housing policy is the most important decision for government to make in housing policy. Speaking with federal officials, it's becoming clear their mandate and direction are to get money out the door. I fear the federal government is in danger of repeating the mistakes of the first national housing strategy in rushing to get money out the door without clarity on what the investment is supposed to achieve.
Success in housing policy is not going to be measured by how much money is spent or how many units are started. Success will be measured by the number of families finding housing that meets their needs, and that they can afford, in their communities. It will be measured by reduced homelessness and improved community safety. It will be measured by the number of families who aren't worried at the end of every month about whether or not they'll be able to pay their rent.
The expiry of the national housing strategy and the upcoming federal budget create an opportunity for the federal government to stop and take a beat to be clear about the outcomes they want to achieve, to set clear priorities and to design the new national housing strategy and related housing programs around the outcomes they want to achieve.
I'll close with a mantra I picked up in the army: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Rushing leads to mistakes that will slow you down. By moving more deliberately and focusing on precision, you'll ultimately move faster and more effectively. This advice is every bit as applicable to federal housing policy as it was to me as a young soldier.
Thank you all very much. I look forward to your questions.