Average wait times for subsidized housing in Toronto span from eight to 15 years depending on the unit, according to 2022 data from the city.
"There was this vague notion that the private sector would somehow provide low-income housing, but that's never been true. And it certainly hasn't been true in Canada," Whitzman said. Earlier this year, Scotiabank economist Rebekah Young published a report calling for a doubling of the social-housing stock.
"The moral case to urgently build out Canada's anemic stock of social housing has never been stronger. The economic case is equally compelling," Young's report said. By 2028, the strategy promises to cut homelessness in half, lift more than half a million families from housing need and build up to 160,000 homes.Some of the strategy's failures were brought to light in a report from the federal auditor general last fall. It found that despite the pledge to reduce homelessness by 50 per cent, Ottawa doesn't actually know how many homeless people there are in the country.
And given that interest rates and costs have risen, the money initially invested is simply not enough, he said.government funding can make or break a project. "We probably have 25 projects right now that can't go forward without federal funding, and there's no pathway currently with the current programs to go forward," Neven said.The NDP, on the other hand, has been particularly vocal about the lack of affordable housing, calling on the federal government to spend more money.