Housing plan designed to improve housing affordability, Duclos says
OTTAWA — The Liberal government’s vision for tackling homelessness and easing the crunch in affordable housing deliberately focuses spending on building and finding homes for low-income Canadians, rather than putting cash into more shelter space, says the minister in charge of the file.
The idea behind the government’s plan — spending billions first to build up Canada’s stock of affordable housing, and later to provide direct benefits to tenants, rather than spending on shelters — is to ensure fewer Canadians remain or become homeless over time, Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in an interview.
Such an approach will also help make private homes more affordable in markets like Vancouver by giving young Canadians, for example, more affordable rental options where few currently exist, Duclos added.
All of which is why the federal government sees the private sector as a key player in the housing strategy the Liberals unveiled Wednesday: governments and housing providers, Duclos said, can’t solve Canada’s affordable housing crisis by themselves.