Federal Housing Advocate urges government to prioritize non-market housing in a new report

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 4, 2025 /CNW/ - The Federal Housing Advocate is calling on the Government of Canada to take bold action to address the housing crisis by making non-market housing a cornerstone of its strategy, ensuring federal housing policy meets the country's human rights commitments.

A new report, commissioned by the Advocate's office and penned by housing policy expert Dr. Carolyn Whitzman, warns that Canada is falling far short of meeting the targets set out in the National Housing Strategy. At the current pace of building deeply affordable homes, it would take more than 1,000 years to meet the goal of eliminating homelessness and core housing need.

Canada is missing 4.4 million affordable homes. These calculations take into account vulnerable populations that are not counted in census data — people experiencing homelessness, students, and people living in congregate housing.

The report finds that since the launch of Canada's National Housing Strategy in 2017, non-market housing completions have stagnated at 4,000 to 6,000 units annually (just 3% of new builds), while chronic homelessness has risen by 22%. The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects that by 2028, only 78,000 households will have been lifted out of core housing need — far short of the 530,000 targeted. Moreover, between 2011–2021, Canada lost 15 deeply affordable homes for every one that was created.

Non-market housing is a critical solution to Canada's mounting housing and affordability crisis. Creating and building new non-market housing must be a core focus for federal spending and the new crown agency Build Canada Homes.

The Advocate is urging the federal government to:

• Commit to ensuring at least 20% of all housing in Canada is non-market by 2055, requiring 40% of all new housing built today to be non-market.
  
  
• Establish human rights-based targets and definitions of affordability based on income, not market prices.
  
  
• Mandate the new Build Canada Homes agency to deliver at least 100,000 deeply affordable homes annually.
  
  
• Coordinate across all levels of government with transparent reporting, retention of existing affordable housing, and eviction prevention measures.

With the proposed changes, eliminating core housing need could be achieved in roughly 30 years.

The Advocate's recommendations are grounded in the principles of the National Housing Strategy Act — to progressively realize the right to housing, prioritize marginalized groups, and meaningfully engage communities in housing solutions.

The report also underscores the success of targeted non-market programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative under the National Housing Strategy, which delivered 57% of the homes affordable to low-income households with just 7% of the total funding. It calls for scaling such approaches through ambitious non-market housing acquisition, construction, and preservation efforts.  

The report and the Advocate's advice to the Minister will inform the development of the next phase of the National Housing Strategy, set to be renewed in 2027–28.

Quotes

"Canada has the tools, the policy consensus, and the legislative foundation to solve the housing crisis. What we need now is the political will to focus on the right supply — housing that is truly affordable for those most in need — and to hold ourselves accountable for delivering it."
– Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate

Quick facts

• Eliminating core housing need could be achieved in roughly 30 years with the changes proposed in the report:
  • Commit to ensuring at least 20% of all housing in Canada is non-market by 2055, requiring 40% of all new housing built today to be non-market.
  • Shift affordability definitions to income-based thresholds (30% gross or 40% net household income), include currently excluded groups, and ensure Indigenous-led housing projects.
  • Enable 100,000 deeply affordable homes/year – by prioritizing supportive housing for vulnerable groups, purchasing private market rental stock at risk of becoming unaffordable, using public land and modular builds, fast-tracking approvals, aligning social assistance and wages with rents, and safeguarding security of tenure.
  • Build 500,000 homes annually – deliver 200,000 non-market homes (half deeply affordable) and 300,000 market homes, while scaling the non-market sector through financing, land provision, strategic partnerships, and streamlined developer processes.
• Since the launch of Canada's National Housing Strategy in 2017, non-market housing completions have stagnated at 4,000–6,000 units annually (just 3% of new builds), while chronic homelessness has risen by 22% since 2017. 
  
  
• The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects that by 2028, only 78,000 households will have been lifted out of core housing need — far short of the 530,000 targeted in the National Housing Strategy. 
  
  
• Between 2011–2021, Canada lost 15 deeply affordable homes for every one that was created.
  
  
• The Rapid Housing Initiative under the National Housing Strategy delivered 57% of the homes affordable to low-income households with just 7% of the total funding – or 8,221 units at $4 billion.
  
  
• Current non-market housing in Canada accounts for only 3.5% of total stock.

Related links

• Report: Human Rights-Based Housing Targets and Mechanisms for Canada
• Advice to the Minister: How a human rights-based approach can help solve the housing crisis
• New report reveals that Canada is missing 4.4M affordable homes for people in housing need
• Also launched this week: Scaling up affordable housing through a 'Build Canada Homes' proposal (Maytree report)

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SOURCE Office of the Federal Housing Advocate

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