New reports offer guidance for strengthening the next National Housing Strategy

Ottawa, Ontario – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate

Today, the Federal Housing Advocate published a series of new reports aimed at the federal government, offering essential guidance on how it can strengthen its housing investments and programs.

Canada’s current National Housing Strategy is set to end in 2027–2028, a decade after it was first enacted. As the government looks towards the Strategy’s renewal, now is an opportunity to build on lessons learned. This expert, evidence-based research provides federal decision-makers with valuable insight into what is working, what is not, and where urgent action is needed.

These three new reports point the way to a renewed, rights-based approach that:

  • prioritizes disadvantaged groups
  • maximizes the effectiveness of federal coordination and leadership with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, and
  • sets clear, outcome-based targets

The work highlights an essential consideration: Committing to a human rights-based approach offers a clear path forward. When governments design policies with human rights in mind, based on approaches and outcomes for the people they serve, solutions become more effective and sustainable.

The coming years will be critical. As the next National Housing Strategy takes shape, Canada has an opportunity strengthen the Strategy to deliver meaningful progress towards ending the housing and homelessness crisis.

The three reports will be formally launched at a webinar hosted by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association on Tuesday, April 14, from 12–1:30pm EDT.

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“There is no time to waste. As the current National Housing Strategy’s agreements expire in 2027, uncertainty is affecting those who rely on this funding the most, including providers of essential low-cost housing for people without homes and those at risk of homelessness.

Canada is at a crucial moment. The federal government has an opportunity to build a National Housing Strategy that reflects Canada’s human rights commitments and ensures that everyone has access to housing that enables them to live in safety and in dignity.”

–Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate

Background

  • The previous National Housing Strategy was developed in 2017, before the Canadian government passed the National Housing Strategy Act in 2019 that holds all governments responsible to progressively realize the right to adequate housing for everyone in Canada.

  • Paper 1 – Rights-based intergovernmental agreements for the next National Housing Strategy by Dr. Carolyn Whitzman: This report, by Adjunct Professor Carolyn Whitzman at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, sets out three simple targets for all housing policies:

    • Ending homelessness by 2040
    • Ending low-income renter housing need by 2050
    • Ensuring that all Canadians have an adequate, affordable home by 2060

    These targets cannot be met by private sector housing developers alone. They require clear and consistent definitions of affordable housing for income categories (very low-, low-, moderate-, and median-income households) already used in federally mandated need assessments. They also require a clear priority for federal government funding: permanent affordable non-market housing for the majority of those in need, who are very low- and low-income people.
    This work analyzes the opportunities and challenges of renewing the Federal, Provincial, Territorial (FPT) Housing Partnership Framework. It focuses on the need for intergovernmental alignment and collaboration, including how stronger rights-based conditionality, income-based affordability targets, and measurable outcomes could be embedded into the next iteration of the framework and bilateral agreements.

  • Paper 2 – Building homes, upholding rights: A human rights approach to housing agreements: This work by Professor Alexandra Flynn, a constitutional expert at University of British Columbia’s Peter J Allard School of Law, proposes minimum standards like those set out in the 1984 Canada Health Act in return for housing and infrastructure transfer payments. It examines how federal spending power and contractual mechanisms can be used to embed public purpose, accountability, and human rights outcomes in housing programs.
  • Paper 3 – A rights-based approach to the Canada Housing Benefit by Dr. Carolyn Whitzman: The third report, also by Adjunct Professor Whitzman, examines future options for the Canada Housing Benefit. The current rent supplement system is not working to decrease homelessness or housing need. A federal guaranteed basic income is one option, as is stronger agreements with provinces and territories to provide adequate rent supplements to bridge the growing gap between market rents and what low-income households can afford, as well as stronger protections for tenants. The work proposes reforms to the CHB to: address deep affordability gaps to position it as a more effective homelessness-prevention tool; improve the alignment with provincial and territorial income-assistance programs; and ensure federal expenditures support measurable, rights-based outcomes.

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