nearly 50 per cent of the $1.2 billion set aside for the National Housing Co-Investment Fund and the Rental Construction Financing Initiative. The former provides loans and forgivable debt to those who intend to build affordable homes, while the latter provides financial assistance in the construction of rental housing across the country.
Therefore, in a report issued on Tuesday (10 August), Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux noted that over the next five years, the number of households in need of an affordable place to live will rise to about 1.8 million, unless the government allocates more funds towards this crisis.
Late last year, the CMHC pledged to create 12,230 affordable housing units under its flagship housing programmes, and in April, the federal government promised to allocate $2.4 billion over five years to ensure the availability of affordable housing for Canadians. Nevertheless, Giroux estimates that the housing affordability gap, which is the difference between the cost of a housing unit and the amount that can be afforded by a low-income Canadian, would rise by 24 per cent to $9.4 billion during this period.
Therefore, the opposition is calling on Ottawa to…
