Delphine Winton just recently moved into an apartment by Casa Loma built in 1936 — and she’s not looking back.
During her hunt for a new space, the 22-year-old student was strictly looking for older buildings, choosing to stay away from the sliding glass doors, lack of “character” and odd floor plans she’s seen in newer condos.
“God forbid you have enough room to put a dining table in,” she told CBC Toronto.
The new federal budget makes it clear that Prime Minister Mark Carney is unprepared to tackle the national housing crisis. His proposed measures are half-hearted at best and fail to adequately address the overregulation throttling construction of new supply.
Canada has chronically built too little housing to meet burgeoning demand, which, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), has led to a national shortage of approximately 2.6 million units. This is the primary reason why the inflation-adjusted price of an average Canadian home has doubled since the early 2000s — there are simply too many people bidding on scarce inventory.
For a faint second, it seemed as though federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson had finally seen the light. During a House of Commons finance committee appearance recently, headlines reported that Robertson acknowledged what should be an obvious truth — that “the average home price must fall” to make housing affordable again.
This was welcome news for both the generations of Canadians locked out of home ownership and housing advocates, many of whom roundly lambasted the minister earlier this year when he insisted, multiple times, that housing prices don’t need to fall.
Ontario’s planned new housing legislation could open the door to ending rent control and indefinite leases across the province, advocates warn after a recent proposal by Premier Doug Ford’s government.
The Ford government introduced a new housing bill on Thursday that it says would streamline approvals and let developers build homes more quickly.
But buried in the legislation is a proposal for “alternative options to lease expiry rules that could allow landlords to control who occupies their units and for how long,” including through adjustments to rental arrangements based on “market conditions, personal needs or business strategies,” according to the province’s briefing slides Thursday.
Majority of Canadians (nearly 60 per cent) say they support communities declaring states of emergency in order to clear homeless encampments in parks and public spaces, according to a new poll.
Thirty two per cent of Canadians said they supported the tactic and 25 per cent said they somewhat supported it. “Men are more likely to support or somewhat support these initiatives than women,” according to the Nanos poll, published on Oct. 18. Three out of 10 Canadians opposed or somewhat opposed using a state of emergency to clear homeless encampments. Six per cent said they were unsure.
A downtown Oshawa property manager says she risks losing her family business, located opposite a non-profit agency that helps people who are homeless, amid ongoing issues on her property — including drug use, vandalism and public urination.
Lord Simcoe Place on Simcoe Street S. has been in Cindy Malachowski’s family for generations. But she says the building is bleeding tenants and has its highest vacancy rate in some 55 years.
“We had one paralegal service leave, saying, ‘We love the building, you’re a great landlord, but we watch people urinate outside our window and watch people shoot up,’” she said.
Mandatory treatment.
If a renter in Toronto wants to dedicate about a third of their paycheque to a one-bedroom apartment each month, they should be making roughly $44 an hour.
That’s according to Zoocasa, a real estate website, which crunched the numbers after several provinces recently raised their minimum wages to keep pace with the rising cost of living.
As of Oct. 1, Ontario raised that wage to $17.60 per hour, reflecting a $0.40 increase from the previous rate.
Nearly 90 percent of Canadians across generational, geographic, and political lines are concerned about the state of housing in the country, a new survey suggests.
Eighty-seven percent of the 3,900 adults polled last month say they are worried about affordability and availability of housing in Canada.
The survey conducted by Abacus Data in collaboration with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) between Sept. 5 and 16, paints a picture of widespread concern across political affiliations with 87 percent of Conservative supporters, 86 percent of Liberal supporters, and 93 percent of NDP supporters expressing apprehension about the state of the market.
Like Sweden, Japan and the U.S. before it, Canada will start experimenting with scaled-up factory-built housing next year — and it has plenty of lessons to learn from countries where the industry has already matured.
Build Canada Homes, the federal government’s newly launched homebuilding agency, aims to fund the construction of 4,000 modular homes on federal land across the country starting next year. The public-private project — currently limited to six cities — could eventually scale to build 45,000 homes, according to Ottawa’s announcement.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow recently threatened to increase property taxes by two per cent to cover the increasing costs associated with housing asylum claimants in the city’s shelter system, if she doesn’t first get the funds from the federal government. This would be over and above whatever tax rate increase she was already planning.
This isn’t the right way to go about solving the crisis of so many asylum claimants residing in our shelters, motels and streets. It’s not the taxpayers’ fault.
A young St. Marys, Ont., woman has been handed the keys to independence and stability thanks to a charity that’s planning to open the first of many tiny homes for people at risk of homelessness.
The home is 490 square feet, but for Paige Noel, 20, it’s a big step toward getting established, all while staying close to her family. The tiny home was erected in her mother’s yard, as the nearby house is already at capacity.
“I never imagined I’d be able to have my own place like this,” Noel said.
Her Mom wouldn’t take her in?
If increased supply is the solution to the housing crisis, Canada is making no progress.
The city of Toronto is on pace to build fewer new homes this year than at any time in the past 30 years.
“If you think we don’t have enough homes, fast forward two or three years, and it’s going to be an absolute catastrophe,” Marlon Bray, executive vice-president of Clark Construction Management, a Mississauga-based builder, said at an online summit this month of residential builders.
Olivia Chow warns Toronto faces tax increase — or people on the streets — due to shelter funding cuts
The city of Toronto is now facing cuts to its shelter funding from the province, threatening another one of the municipality’s key funding sources to house homeless people.
According to a letter from Mayor Olivia Chow published Friday, the province recently informed the municipality it is reducing allocated funding for next year to almost $8 million, compared to $19.75 million the city received this year and $38 million it got in 2024.
No homeless means no money to funnel to her commie pals for pet projects employing fellow toxic commies.
How many of the Liberal party’s “asylum seekers” use shelters in TO – nearly 30% of the total.
It’s extortion.
OTTAWA — At just 32, Eddie has a six-figure salary from a major financial institution, stocks, and no debt, including his rental property that nets him more than $5,000 a month. He lives frugally and invests as much as he can.
Eddie wants to buy a house in Ottawa, as close as possible to his downtown job, and is willing to spend up to about $900,000.
His wish list seems pretty basic: a decent neighbourhood, a back yard, and at least three bedrooms to accommodate what he hopes will one day be a growing family.
This week, Food Banks Canada graded the federal government a “D” for its efforts at addressing skyrocketing food insecurity and poverty among Canadians amidst a weakening economy. The 2025 Poverty Report Card indicates a growing number of employed Canadians are impoverished, and provides data that further suggests Canada may be veering into a recession, or already experiencing one.
