About 20 per cent of Canadians struggle to afford their homes, study finds
Posted March 30, 2010 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA, Ont. – A gap in the supply of affordable housing has left one-fifth of Canadians struggling to afford the homes they live in and that’s having an adverse effect on national productivity, a prominent think tank said Tuesday.
The Conference Board of Canada’s report, dubbed “Building from the Ground Up,” concludes many Canadians can only keep a roof over their heads by cutting costs in ways that could harm their health _ such as buying less nutritious food.
The report calls upon governments to partner with real-estate developers and civil organizations to increase the amount of affordable housing in the country, saying such changes would have positive impacts on both Canadians’ health and the national productivity level.
About 75 per cent of Canadians are currently living in homes they can afford, the Conference Board said, adding a further five per cent have their housing costs subsidized by the government.
That leaves 20 per cent of Canadians struggling to keep up with the cost of their homes, the report said. The Conference Board defined housing costs as unaffordable if they exceeded 30 per cent of pre-tax income.
Developers have tended to focus on building homes that are affordable to people in a higher income bracket, leaving a large segment of the population underserved, the report found.
The private sector’s history of efficient and innovative practices would make it a valuable partner in the effort to close the housing gap, the Conference Board said.
