We need both, and we need more of both. Social housing, though, requires different solutions than housing affordability.
Housing affordability is really about whether Canadians can afford to buy a house that they want to live in. Can they afford to rent without any kind of subsidy? When we look at what's happened to house prices across the country and housing affordability in general over the past decade, we see it's gotten worse and worse.
One of the biggest drivers is supply. Development taxes are another huge one, but a the 3.5 million target is really about helping to get demand and supply in balance. That also helps avoid more and more people needing social housing, because if you don't fix housing affordability, you have more and more people lining up all the time.
We can't build our way out of the social housing dilemma. We have to fix housing affordability at the same time, and then we also have to find the best ways to support people who are in core housing need and need some sort of government assistance, not-for-profit assistance, to help them get the housing they need. Hopefully, one day, they'll also get to a better place over time where they don't need that. There's an affordable place to move into, to rent, or there's a rent-to-buy program or something like that that can help them move up and out. Even shared appreciation mortgages from not-for-profit organizations have been a great way of helping people who are stuck in social housing. Once they have a more steady income, they can get into home ownership.