“Homelessness & Affordability Crisis”

Liberal Party created housing crisis is now hurting our labour market

Liberal Party housing initiative.

There are so many downsides to the untenable prices in the Canadian housing market that it’s hard to keep up. But to add another one to the list: The negative effect on mobility, including the ability of people to move for work.

Prohibitively expensive home prices, high interest rates and increasing rents are the antithesis to the movement of people. Many are stuck in this constipated housing market. If you have anything close to a decent spot, you’re not going anywhere. It’s a big part of what’s gumming up the system.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Trudeau government created housing crisis poised to worsen without major reforms, RBC report says

Canada’s housing affordability crisis will hit even more alarming levels in the coming years without a bold set of policy reforms to boost supply, the economics department at Royal Bank of Canada said Monday in a report.

The country needs to complete roughly 320,000 housing units annually from now until 2030, simply to meet the new demand that will arise over that period, according to RBC estimates. This would amount to an increase of nearly 50 per cent from recent completion levels – and it would require a record pace of construction.

If anything, Canada is moving in the wrong direction. There were around 240,000 housing unit starts in 2023, down from roughly 271,000 in 2021, according to figures from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. This doesn’t bode well for completions over the rest of the decade.

In the past few weeks the Liberals have been on blast about their many housing initiatives as if that was going to solve the crisis they created.

All of their grandiose declarations amount to a drop in the bucket.

It’s all bullshit all the time from the Liberals.

h/t DS

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Ottawa’s billion-dollar housing pledges promising but not enough


Canada’s housing crisis heightened in 2020 and 2021, when families with median incomes faced an average house price that was as high as seven to nine times their annual income. Surging home prices and relatively stagnant income growth combine to make the dream of home ownership beyond the reach of most Canadians, especially young people, unless either house prices fall by half or earnings double.

The rental market is no more affordable. Renters spend on average more than 35 per cent of their incomes on rent. In tighter markets such as Toronto and Vancouver, rents could be as high as 45 per cent of income.

Housing unaffordability is a dire issue.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Disinformation", "Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Michael Higgins: Trudeau isn’t the solution, he’s the problem

… The prime minister seemed appalled at the situation as if the explosion of temporary foreign workers and international students in Canada wasn’t his fault.

But it is entirely the Liberals fault. The issue of temporary foreign workers was an issue Trudeau was aware of even before he became prime minister.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", "Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

‘A significant overreach’: Canada housing plan draws provincial pushback

Jurisdictional jousting has begun over federal funding for housing projects as provincial leaders tell the Trudeau government to stay in its lane.

Over the last week, the Trudeau Liberals have announced billions in funding to kick-start home building in the country. Much of that money comes with conditions that the provinces meet certain criteria and a number of benchmarks.

“This is a significant overreach by the federal government to come in and attempt to nationalize housing,” said Jason Nixon, Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Bristol named van-dweller capital of UK as cost of living bites

… Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, said the demographic of people living in vans in the city had shifted dramatically from a lifestyle choice to a necessity due to the housing crisis.

“Our need for affordable housing is huge,” Rees said in the report. “Households across Bristol are struggling to afford to keep a roof over their heads, with spiralling rents and rising bills, threatening to push many towards the brink of homelessness.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis"

Are ‘mom-and-pop’ investors pricing out first-time homebuyers?

With new condo construction hitting “record levels,” prospects for first-time homebuyers may be improving, but experts warn competition for those units will be fierce.

Wealthy investors looking for a second or third property are common customers for those types of homes. Recent trends show more of them are purchasing properties than first-timers, said John Pasalis, Realtor and broker at Realosophy Realty.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis"

Toronto renters are paying tens of thousands of dollars to win competitive bidding wars

It took Karim and Joseph more than eight months to find a two-bedroom apartment to rent in downtown Toronto.

The high school friends, now 30 and 31 years old respectively, who did not want their last names published to avoid identifying their current landlord, started their search in July 2022. Joseph, the more experienced of the two, had already warned Karim of the “scope of how quick things happen.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis"

Housing Crisis, Packed Hospitals and Food Lines: Even in Canada?

From Montreal to Vancouver, some residents are losing faith in a longstanding social safety net that is central to the country’s identity.

Canada has long prided itself on its social programs, meant to reduce poverty and equalize access to what are seen as core rights like health care, education, food and shelter. It spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year on social safety supports that are a major reason millions of people want to move to the northern nation.

But key parts of its safety net are fraying — in some cases badly. In 2013, Canada ranked 13th out of 170 countries in meeting the basic needs of citizens, according to data tracked by Social Progress Imperative. By 2023, it had fallen to 39th, in large part because of a lack of affordable housing.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Downtown LA slammed as ‘third world’ as shocking video shows homeless camped out on trash-covered sidewalks

Downtown Los Angeles has been described as ‘third world’ after shocking footage revealed a homeless encampment with open fires in the street and trash-covered sidewalks.

The startling video, posted to X by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, shows dozens of homeless people sitting and standing on filthy sidewalks on the corner of San Pedro Street and 6th Street in the Skid Row neighborhood of LA.

Some are seen standing around an open fire in the street, just moments away from the Midnight Mission, a $17 million center for the homeless.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", USA

Cory Morgan: Feds’ Renters’ Bill of Rights Proposal Is Rife With Problems

Canada’s skyrocketing cost of living has been an issue plaguing the Liberal government. Few things undercut support for a government more than citizens having trouble making ends meet, whether the government is responsible for it or not.

The Trudeau government has appeared to ignore the issue and remains fixated on carbon taxes, social justice, and overseas diplomacy. But when a person can’t pay the rent or afford groceries, policies in the name of climate change and conflicts in foreign nations become secondary concerns.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Tenants’ rent should count toward their credit score, the federal government says — but it won’t force the move

The federal government is calling on banks, credit bureaus, landlords and financial technology firms to include rent payments in credit scores in a bid to help Canadians secure better mortgage rates. But officials say they won’t yet enforce the practice, and one critic expects the move will have little impact on affordability.

… It’s a move that David Hulchanski, a housing expert at the University of Toronto, sees as relatively toothless. Along with the voluntary nature of implementation, he noted that credit scores were less pervasive of a barrier to homeownership than the sheer cost of homes today compared with income levels.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, WTF?