Rights-based and ambitious: A new chapter for housing policy in Canada
Written submission in response to the Build Canada Homes Market Sounding Guide
This submission is part of the “Housing as essential social infrastructure” series.
Maytree’s submission urges the government of Canada to root “Build Canada Homes” (BCH) in the human right to adequate housing, targeting those in greatest need while using the full scope of available tools to address Canada’s housing crisis.
With an estimated three million deeply affordable homes needed to end homelessness and fulfill the right to adequate housing, this submission outlines eight recommendations to equip BCH to meet this challenge. Central among these is the call to embed the progressive realization of the right to housing into the BCH mandate – transforming human rights principles into concrete, enforceable policies.
With the right tools and ambition, BCH can be a permanent platform for large-scale, non-market housing development centred around government ownership of new housing and employing multiple levers in tandem to make projects viable at extremely low rents.
Our eight recommendations
Recommendation 1: Include the progressive realization of the right to housing as an explicit and central component of the BCH mandate. Further require that the BCH executive team report on how they are embedding human rights across each of their portfolios, such that BCH develops a culture and capacity to apply human rights-based approaches to all aspects of its work.
Recommendation 2: The BCH mandate should give priority to the construction of deeply affordable housing for those in greatest need – that is, people with very low incomes. This should link to clear definitions of deeply affordable and affordable housing.
Recommendation 3: Consistent with a human rights-based approach, BCH should have a dedicated mechanism for meaningful engagement with individuals with lived experience of housing precarity and grassroots organizations. Those who will live in the units built by BCH must themselves have a seat at the table.
Recommendation 4: BCH should be a permanent platform for a large-scale, non-market housing development agenda centred around government ownership of new housing and employing multiple levers in tandem to make projects viable at extremely low rents.
Recommendation 5: BCH should look to military housing as a means of demonstrating its ability to deliver government-owned assets at scale through innovative techniques.
Recommendation 6: The government should replace the Canada Housing Benefit with a permanent, entitlement-based housing benefit developed in collaboration with the provinces and territories so that it enhances the existing income security system. This is part of ensuring those in greatest need can afford the rent in BCH-built units and to provide immediate support to all struggling renters.
Recommendation 7: BCH must be empowered to coordinate all required regulatory, policy and programmatic levers across government that will assist in its mission. This should result in process for continuous communication and cooperation between all involved deputy ministers, agency heads, and their senior reports.
Recommendation 8: BCH should have an accountability framework at least as robust as the broader National Housing Strategy, complete with transparent targets, actions, and reporting. In keeping with the National Housing Strategy Act, accountability should focus on driving results for priority populations.
Read all publications in the “Housing as essential social infrastructure” series
- Scaling up affordable housing through a ‘Build Canada Homes’ proposal
- Rights-based and ambitious: A new chapter for housing policy in Canada
- Scaling housing building in Canada: Leveraging military infrastructure
- Building housing like we did the St. Lawrence Seaway