Housing
ACORN’s housing campaign calls for the Federal Government to enact legislation that clearly establishes the right to secure, adequate and affordable housing.
ACORN’s National Housing Demands
Housing is a Right!
The Federal Government should enact legislation that clearly establishes the right to secure, adequate and affordable housing:
Affordability:
- Ensure that all people pay less than 30% of household income on housing, without risk of eviction.
- Ensure that enough social housing is built and housing benefits created to supply all people on the social housing wait-list with affordable housing. (Housing benefits cannot be a replacement for a robust housing program that includes support for new publically-owned, and run, RGI housing. Sustain existing RGI subsidies plus new supply of social housing needs to be created. Housing benefits should be used as a temporary solution to address the need for affordable housing while the adequate amount of public housing is built.)
- Spend 100% of the $11.2 billion announced in the March 2017 budget within the next two years to respond to the housing crisis.
Multi-jurisdictional leadership from federal government:
- Our current housing challenge requires responsibility and action from all levels, bringing to bear the collective set of policy and financial tools at our disposal. This will require leadership at the federal level and a new set of arrangements between federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and First Nations governments.
Full rent control by all provinces.
Federal Government to support municipal implementation of mandatory inclusive zoning in high pressure development.
Minimum standards of maintenance:
- It is important that the policy environment encourages re-investment in substandard housing in a way that preserves quality while maintaining affordability. Energy retrofits are win-win, as energy efficiency equals lower costs. This cost reduction needs strong policies to ensure the savings are being passed on to the tenants.
- We need the federal government to implement a federal minimum standard of housing, covering the livability of housing for many low-income families across the country. It should include basic standards of maintenance, health standards related to mold and pests, and a minimum enforcement regime for any level of government responsible for housing conditions. Included in this should be support for landlord licensing policies at municipal or provincial levels to enforce the standards created at the federal level.
See our report on lessons learned from U.S. housing policy here.