The number of homeless encampments nationwide is growing, and so is the case law saying cities can’t remove them.
A landmark court decision in 2009 in British Columbia first established that, in some cases, removing encampments violates the charter right to “life, liberty, and security.” In January 2023, the first Ontario court decision to this effect was handed down in Waterloo.
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre intends to give bonuses to “high-cost cities” that meet their new housing targets and reallocate $100 million from the Liberals’ Housing Accelerator Fund to reward Canadian municipalities that greatly exceed theirs.
On Wednesday, Poilievre tabled his housing bill, the Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act, that offers a clearer view of what he hopes to achieve to accelerate construction in the midst of Canada’s housing crisis.
Canadians unable to find housing should contact their respective City Halls for help, according to federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser.
At a press conference on Sept. 18, Mr. Fraser faced questions on what his government will do to address Canada’s housing crisis.
“What are you going to do for people who can’t find housing today?” asked a reporter, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter. “A lot of these measures are two years, three years down the road—it takes a long time to build apartment rentals.”
The New Yorker sees a homelessness program rife with drugs and crime as hugely successful.
Last week’s New Yorker featured a 15,000–word exploration of what happens when government gives housing to the homeless. The article profiled a Brooklyn supportive-housing program that provides formerly homeless people with private apartments run in accordance with Housing First principles. Building residents face no behavioral expectations.
Author Jennifer Egan portrays a chaotic scene, overrun with addiction, premature mortality, and crime. Nonetheless, Egan (a novelist by trade) argues that this program succeeds in offering residents “a new lease on life” and should be replicated everywhere homelessness is found. Readers may be reminded of the third chapter of Michael Shellenberger’s book San Fransicko: “The Experiment Was a Success but the Patients Died.”
There is a simple solution to the housing crisis: Voters in municipalities across Canada could elect mayors and councils dedicated to stripping away zoning restrictions, while simplifying and lowering the costs of permissions and permits.
Unfortunately, voters in municipal elections tend to be homeowners who benefit from escalating prices and who want to preserve their neighbourhoods. Councils reflect their will.
Opinion: Most politicians believe, apparently mistakenly, voters will punish them if house prices fell. Their self-interests could also be getting in the way.
Most Canadians, according to polls, are willing to see house prices to drop so people squeezed out of ownership, particularly young adults, can obtain some shelter security.
But, despite politicians’ endless rhetoric about fighting for “affordable” housing, they don’t really want home values to drop. There are several reasons why this is the case.
In the heart of Toronto’s industrial Port Lands, there is a street filled with trailers and motor homes — and a 61-year-old carpenter trying to plan for an unknown future.
He’ll be relying once again on a diesel heater through the dark nights of the approaching winter. It would help to have another solar panel on the roof to provide power.
The California conundrum: Fewer people, more homes, but an acute housing shortage
In the last decade, California home prices and rents have soared, an upswing that’s put homeownership further out of reach and helped drive thousands into homelessness.
This escalation coincided with a unique moment in California history. For much of the last decade, the state’s population growth was historically low.
In the last few years, it ground to halt and then dropped — and all the while developers continued to build.
The iconic Las Vegas strip has seen a surge in homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks and in makeshift tents as the city grapples with an affordable housing crisis.
New images taken by DailyMail.com show people curled up in the sidewalk and outside store fronts – with some keeping their minimal belongings in trolleys and encampments.
At least 6,566 people were counted as homeless in Southern Nevada in late January of this year, according to statistics from the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care.
The mayors of two of Canada’s rapidly-growing cities say the housing crises their residents are facing is “desperate” and “dire,” and are encouraging all levels of government to work together to solve them as quickly as possible.
In a joint interview with Mercedes Stephenson that aired Sunday on The West Block, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek and London, Ont., Mayor Josh Morgan said they are welcoming federal funding programs dedicated to the building of new housing units, but added more needs to be done to turn things around.
There is no quick fix, even if Trudeau had the intelligence to close the immigration floodgates today he has dug a hole so deep it will take years for Canadians to crawl out of it.
Trudeau is a cruel and stupid person who callously inflicted this mess on Canadians.
Canada’s housing crisis will take years to solve: finance minister
An affordable housing crisis that is hurting the Canadian government’s popularity will take years to resolve, even if construction hits an 80-year high, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Saturday.
Her comments were among the first by a senior member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal administration to acknowledge the scale of the challenge. Polls show the Liberals trailing their Conservative rivals, who blame Ottawa for high inflation and soaring home prices.
This is Trudeau’s crisis, he created it so don’t blame Canadians Freedo.
The federal government’s removal of GST for rentals in Canada is a welcome step to create more housing affordability but its impact on rents likely won’t be felt any time soon, experts told Global News.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the immediate removal of the five per cent tax for those projects on Thursday. The idea was first put forward as a 2015 campaign pledge by the Liberals but it had never come into fruition until now.
Raj Salwan says he is living in a financial nightmare.
Every month, he is slipping deeper and deeper into debt, covering the costs of a condo he owns that’s occupied by a tenant who isn’t paying and will not leave.
Salwan said his tenant is in arrears of over $34,000. He has had to take out a loan against his own home to cover the mounting costs of the mortgage and utilities.
It’s a mess and unfortunately a lot of good people on both sides get burned.
I would rent my place out and build out a van if I wasn’t worried about being made bankrupt by a “professional tenant.”
You read it here first: a thrilling announcement of epic proportions! An idea no Canadian newspaper has dared fathom until now. It’s entirely new; absolutely game changing. Prepare to be wowed.
Here it is: the National Post will continue to print columns on a daily basis. Our brand colour will continue to be yellow.
This is more or less the equivalent of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced this Wednesday, just hours after Fraser teased unprecedented measures to tackle the housing crisis. That morning, he told media, “Today’s going to be the first time we’ve done something like this in Canada.”
Will Justin Trudeau’s plan to end GST on new rental buildings help tenants?
The federal government announced Thursday it will scrap GST on new rental buildings, a move the building industry calls a “game-changer.” But tenant advocates say it won’t make enough difference in a market where renters are often forced into expensive “shoebox condos.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would remove the federal sales tax on the construction of new rental apartments for the next seven years, a pledge he recycled from his 2015 campaign, as his Liberal caucus retreat in London, Ont., drew to a close.
It’s not going to help tenants. They’ll see no reduction in rental rates so long as Trudeau’s mass immigration scam is going full blast preventing supply from ever coming close to meeting demand.
All it amounts to is a sweetheart deal for developers. Expect donations to the Trudeau foundation to enjoy a bump.
Faced with increasing pressure to respond to widespread concerns about the cost of living and questions about his leadership, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of new measures Thursday meant to deal with rising housing and grocery prices.
Trudeau’s announcement came at the conclusion of a Liberal caucus meeting in London, Ont. that included what one minister called a “robust” discussion of the government’s challenges and sagging political fortunes.
Poilievre releases housing plan he says would ‘build homes, not bureaucracy’
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre released Thursday a housing plan he said would fast-track the construction of new homes in Canada as the country grapples with an acute shortage of affordable places to live.
Poilievre said that after eight years in government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have failed to stimulate the construction of enough homes to meet demand — a situation that has made young people increasingly disillusioned about their financial futures.
Interesting – both are getting hammered in the comments.
