Une introduction au logement supervisé et le Logement d’abord

Une introduction au logement supervisé et le Logement d’abord

by | Feb 20, 2021 | Canada, Ending Homelessness, Fiscal policy, Government, Government Funding, Harm Reduction, Homeless, Housing, Housing First, Ontario, Pitching new programs to government, Policy, Social Housing, Social Policy, Toronto

Une introduction au logement supervisé et le Logement d’abord

An English-language version of this blog post is available here.

Le 3 février 2021, j’étais conférencier dans le séminaire d’études supérieures de Greg Suttor au département de géographie et de planification de l’université de Toronto (un grand honneur puisque Greg est un de mes mentors depuis longtemps). Ma présentation portait sur les liens entre les univers du logement et du sans-abrisme au Canada (et plus particulièrement à Toronto).

La présentation entière et détaillée est disponible (en anglais) ici.

Voici 10 choses à savoir à ce sujet :

1. Au Canada, la plupart des gens qui réfléchissent à la question s’entendent pour dire que le logement subventionné est essentiel afin de le prévenir et de répondre au sans-abrisme. Toutefois, il existe des débats importants : la quantité additionnelle de logements abordables requis; à qui devraient servir le nombre limité de logements; quels sont les meilleurs modèles de logements subventionnés; et à quel degré chaque logement devrait-il être subventionné?

2. Les élus ne s’entendent pas sur la répartition des couts des subventions. À l’heure actuelle, le consensus est que le gouvernement fédéral canadien devrait s’acquitter des frais de développement (par exemple, le capital), mais on ne s’entend pas à savoir qui devrait financer les frais d’exploitation conséquents. Les paliers de gouvernements jouent en quelque sorte à voir qui cèdera en premier, ce qui limite la quantité de nouveaux logements abordables créés chaque année.

3. En Ontario, lorsque le sans-abrisme est survenu comme défi de politique publique dans les années 80, les personnes itinérantes sont devenues un point focal majeur de la politique sur le logement. Une approche de l’époque consistait à reloger les itinérants dans des logements abordables et leur offrir de l’assistance sociale. Aujourd’hui, cette approche s’appelle le logement supervisé (et de nos jours, Logement d’abord en est presque un synonyme). La plupart des résidents qui ont recours au logement supervisé au Canada sont des adultes célibataires n’ayant personne à charge et qui ont de sérieux défis de santé mentale. 

4. Ce changement de cap n’est pas survenu dans un vacuum politique – assurément, le militantisme politique a joué un rôle central à son avènement. À Toronto, cela a compris la création du Singles Displaced Persons Project (ou « le projet des personnes célibataires déplacées »), du mouvement des « survivants/consommateurs » qui avait pour slogan « homes not hostels » (ou « un domicile, pas du dépannage ») ainsi que la mise sur pied d’organismes tels Houselink Community Homes, et Homes First Society.

5. Le genre d’appui social offert conjointement avec le logement supervisé fait l’objet de débat. Lorsque j’offrais de tels appuis en travaillant à Toronto, j’aidais les locataires à tenir compte de leurs rendez-vous (par exemple chez le médecin, avec de travailleurs sociaux pour le revenu, ou pour des comparutions en cour). Je les ai souvent accompagnés à leurs rendez-vous. Je les ai défendus s’ils étaient menacés d’éviction et les ai aidés à déménager lorsque cela était nécessaire. Il m’est souvent arrivé de les inviter à prendre un café également.

6. Le logement supervisé permanent adapté au milieu facilite l’organisation d’activités sociales en groupe. On parle ici d’un édifice entier où l’ensemble des locataires ont recours au logement supervisé (plutôt qu’une simple proportion de ses locataires). Ce genre de logement supervisé comprend habituellement du personnel d’appui sur place et dans certains cas, le personnel demeure sur place en tout temps. Le logement supervisé permanent adapté au milieu peut offrir un important appui avec la gestion d’invités et facilite la mise sur pied de programmes alimentaires, d’exercice physique, et de cours d’art.

7. Au Canada, le concept de Logement d’abord – qui est presque synonyme du logement supervisé – a commencé à être accepté au début des années 2000. La Ville de Toronto a beaucoup misé sur le concept à partir de 2005, et la Calgary Homeless Foundation s’y est intéressée également; les militants et les intervenants du domaine s’en servent maintenant à travers le Canada. La stratégie du Logement d’abord permet d’éliminer la condition exigeant qu’un locataire potentiel soit « prêt » à être logé pour l’être.

8. L’idéologie entourant le Logement d’abord ne se situe ni à droite ni à gauche de l’échiquier politique. Elle sert plutôt de “troisième approche” stratégique grâce à laquelle elle trouve des adeptes parmi les entrepreneurs chefs de fil, les élus de toute allégeance politique, et toute une gamme de militants. Cela s’explique en partie par le fait que le Logement d’abord promeut habituellement une redistribution des ressources existantes. Ça s’explique aussi par le fait que les adeptes du Logement d’abord favorisent l’usage de logements privés à but lucratif plutôt que des logements appartenu par des organismes à but non lucratif.

9. Le mérite de l’approche Logement d’abord a été démontré davantage par l’étude canadienne At Home/Chez soi. Dans cette étude randomisée et contrôlée, des participants de cinq villes avec des besoins modérés ont reçu une forme de Logement d’abord incluant une intervention de type Soutien d’intensité variable, tandis que les participants avec des besoins élevés ont reçu une forme de Logement d’abord incluant une intervention de type Suivi intensif. Les participants ont été interviewés tous les trois mois pendant deux ans. Les résultats étaient concluants et moins dispendieux.

10. La Stratégie nationale sur le logement, dévoilée en 2017, ne contient aucune provision spécifique pour le logement supervisé, et ne mentionne pas le Logement d’abord. Pourtant, dans le discours du Trône de septembre 2020, le gouvernement canadien s’engageait à « complètement éliminer le sans-abrisme chronique ». De plus, seulement 5% du nouvel argent a été mis de côté pour réduire le sans-abrisme chronique.

En conclusion, la bonne nouvelle c’est que la plupart des leadeurs du Canada croient que le logement supervisé est une bonne façon de prévenir et de répondre au sans-abrisme. Leur usage du langage de Logement d’abord en témoigne. La mauvaise nouvelle, c’est que la plupart des élus hésitent à engager les fonds nécessaires pour réduire le sans-abrisme – par exemple, la Stratégie nationale sur le logement semble insuffisamment financée pour atteindre l’objectif du gouvernement canadien de mettre fin au sans-abrisme chronique.

Je voudrais remercier Damian Collins, Stéphan Corriveau, John Ecker, Joshua Evans, George Fallis, Susan Falvo, Hayley Gislason, David Hulchanski, Michel Laforge, Steve Lurie, Geoffrey Nelson, Deborah Padgett, Angela Regnier, John Rook et Vincent St-Martin pour leur aide à la rédaction de ce billet.

Une introduction au logement supervisé et le Logement d’abord

A primer on supportive housing and Housing First

by | Feb 20, 2021 | Canada, Ending Homelessness, Government, Government Funding, Harm Reduction, Homeless, Housing, Housing First, Ontario, Social Housing, Social Policy, Toronto

A primer on supportive housing and Housing First

La version française de ce billet se trouve ici.

On 3 February 2021, I gave a guest lecture in Greg Suttor‘s graduate seminar course at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning (Greg is a long-time mentor of mine, so this was a huge honour). My presentation focused on how the worlds of housing and homelessness connect in Canada (and in Toronto especially).

My full slide deck, which contains considerable detail, can be found here.

Here are 10 things to know:

1. In Canada, most leading thinkers agree that subsidized housing is key to both preventing and responding to homelessness. However, there are important debates about: how much more subsidized housing is needed; who should be prioritized for the limited number of available units; which models of subsidized housing are best; and how much subsidy should be attached to each unit.

2. Elected officials do not agree on who should finance subsidized housing. Right now, there’s broad agreement that Canada’s federal government should provide assistance with up-front development costs (i.e., capital costs), but there’s considerable debate over who should finance the ongoing costs after the housing is developed (i.e., operating costs). This ongoing game of chicken, whereby one order of government waits for another one to cave, limits the amount of new affordable housing that gets created each year.

3. In Ontario, when homelessness emerged as a pressing public policy challenge in the 1980s, persons experiencing homelessness started to become a major focus of housing policy. An approach emerged at that time that focused on re-housing persons into subsidized housing and providing them with social work support. This approach became known as supportive housing (today, the term Housing First means almost the same thing). Most residents of supportive housing in Canada are single adults without dependants and are experiencing serious mental health challenges.

4. This didn’t happen in a political vacuum—indeed, political advocacy played a major role in bringing it about. In Toronto, this included the Singles Displaced Persons Project, the “consumer survivor” movement, the slogan “homes not hostels” and the founding of organizations such as Houselink Community Homes, and Homes First Society.

5. The type of social work support provided with supportive housing is the subject of much debate. When I provided such support while working in Toronto, I helped tenants keep track of appointments (e.g., doctors’ appointments, appointments with income support workers, and court appearances). I often accompanied tenants to the appointments. I advocated for them if they were ever being threatened with eviction and (when necessary) helped them relocate to new units. I frequently took them for coffee as well.

6. Place-based supportive housing makes it relatively easy to organize group social activities. Place-based supportive housing refers to a situation where an entire building is occupied by tenants in need of supportive housing (as opposed to just a small percentage of a building’s units being occupied by a specific population group). This type of supportive housing typically involves on-site staff support (with some models, there are staff on site at all times). Place-based supportive housing can offer important assistance with guest management and makes it relatively easy to have meal programs, as well as exercise and art classes.

7. In Canada, Housing First—which means something very similar to supportive housing—became an effective narrative beginning in the early 2000s. The City of Toronto pushed this hard beginning in 2005, and the Calgary Homeless Foundation picked it up quickly as well; advocates and practitioners across Canada now use the term extensively. The Housing First narrative places great emphasis on the importance of not requiring housing readiness on the part of the prospective tenant as a condition of obtaining housing.

8. Ideologically, advocacy in favour of Housing First isn’t exactly left or right; rather, it entails a ‘third way’ political advocacy strategy. Largely because of that ‘third way’ approach, it has found traction among business leaders, elected officials of all stripes and a broad cross-section of advocates. Part of this stems from the fact that Housing First advocates often promote a reallocation of existing resources. It also stems from the fact that Housing First proponents tend to favour the use of housing owned by for-profit landlords (whereas proponents of supportive housing have historically favoured non-profit ownership).

9. Housing First was further advanced by Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi study. This was a five-city randomized controlled study in which participants with moderate needs received Intensive Case Management, while those with higher levels of need received Assertive Community Treatment. Participants were interviewed every three months over two years. Results demonstrated successful outcomes and cost savings.

10. Canada’s National Housing Strategy, unveiled in 2017, contains no specific provisions for supportive housing and makes no mention of Housing First. Yet, the September 2020 Federal Throne Speech includes a commitment to “completely eliminate chronic homelessness.” Further, just 5% of new funding under the National Housing Strategy has been earmarked towards the goal of reducing chronic homelessness.

In sum. The good news is that most of Canada’s thought leaders believe that supportive housing—often articulated via Housing First language—is an important way to both prevent and respond to homelessness. The bad news is that most elected officials are reluctant to commit the necessary funding to substantially reduce homelessness—for example, the National Housing Strategy appears insufficiently resourced to meet the Government of Canada’s objective of ending chronic homelessness.

I wish to thank Damian Collins, Stéphan Corriveau, John Ecker, Joshua Evans, George Fallis, Susan Falvo, Hayley Gislason, David Hulchanski, Michel Laforge, Steve Lurie, Geoffrey Nelson, Deborah Padgett, Angela Regnier, John Rook and Vincent St-Martin for assistance with this blog post. I also wish to thank HomeSpace Society for permission to use the photo used in this post.

Trudeau government should spend more on affordable housing and homelessness

Trudeau government should spend more on affordable housing and homelessness

by | Jul 22, 2020 | Alternative Federal Budget, Canada, Ending Homelessness, Federal Budget, Fiscal policy, Government, Government Funding, Homeless, Housing, Income Support, Policy, Poverty, Social Housing, Social Policy

Trudeau government should spend more on affordable housing and homelessness

On July 21, the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) Recovery Plan was released. The document aims to provide public policy direction to Canada’s federal government, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic (more information on the AFB Recovery Plan can be found, while an overview of the AFB’s history can be found here).

I was author of the Recovery Plan’s chapter on affordable housing and homelessness, which can be accessed here.

 Here are 10 things to know.

1. The COVID-19 Recession has resulted in income loss and rental arrears, especially for lower-income households who are mostly renters. Eviction bans across Canada have had some effectiveness in preventing or slowing down evictions; but when those bans are lifted, many households will be on the brink of absolute homelessness.

2. The recession has diminished people’s ability to get mortgage approvals. In part, this is due to many people having reduced income (or having lost their jobs entirely); it is also due in part to new mortgage rules taking effect on July 1.[1] This means an entire cohort of would-be homeowners will be stuck in the rental market, driving down rental vacancy rates.

3. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed cracks in the patchwork of social services in place for people experiencing homelessness. Challenges have included: the closing of daytime services (e.g., drop-in centres); the closing of public spaces with access to washroom facilities (e.g., libraries); and a lack of Internet access. The pandemic has also created additional costs and operational pressures on supportive housing programs and emergency shelters—for cleaning, personal protective equipment and increased staffing.

4. Across Canada, local officials in the homelessness sector have worked very hard responding to the pandemic. They have created more physical distancing at existing emergency shelters, opened new facilities, leased hotel rooms, and created facilities for both isolation and quarantine. The Trudeau government has provided important financial assistance to the homelessness sector to support these efforts. Indeed, the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, announced on 18 March 2020, includes an additional $157.5 million in one-time funding for Reaching Home (representing a 74% increase in Reaching Home funding for the 2020-21 fiscal year).

5. Nevertheless, challenges remain in the homelessness sector. They include: the existence of shared bathrooms; inadequate access to personal protective equipment; harm reduction (e.g., safe access to illicit drugs); encampments (i.e., outdoor sleeping); a dwindling workforce at emergency shelters and drop-in centres; and an anticipated increase in homelessness resulting from the economic downturn.[2]

6. The Trudeau government should provide a rental top-up to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). This could simply be added to existing CERB payments, showing up in recipients’ bank accounts along with CERB. Canada Revenue Agency could administer the program, just as it does CERB.[3] CERB recipients transitioning onto Employment Insurance could carry their rental top-up with them.

7. The recent Reaching Home enhancement ought to be made permanent. The AFB Recovery Plan would make permanent the recent enhancement to federal Reaching Home funding. Across Canada, federal funding for homelessness (i.e., Reaching Home) is rather modest. According to a 2018 federal program evaluation, for each $1 invested federally, $13 is invested by other sources (mostly provincial and municipal dollars).[4]

8. Federal spending on the National Housing Co-investment Fund should be boosted. A central feature of the National Housing Strategy unveiled in November 2017 is a new National Housing Co-investment Fund (NHCF). Primarily a loan program (as opposed to a grant program) the NHCF has been criticized for providing insufficient funding to make rent levels truly affordable for low-income tenants. The AFB Recovery Plan would enhance the NHCF with an additional $3 billion in grant money annually, over and above what has already been committed by the Trudeau government.

9. The Canada Housing Benefit ought to be enhanced. Central to the Trudeau government’s National Housing Strategy is the launch, in 2020, of a Canada Housing Benefit (CHB). This benefit provides financial assistance to help low-income households afford the rent. The AFB Recovery Plan would double the federal contribution to this benefit at a cost of $250 million annually, over and above current allocations. Province and territories would be expected to cost-share.

10. There should be federal spending earmarked to fund capital for supportive housing. Supportive housing refers to specialized housing for vulnerable populations that features professional (i.e., social work) staff support. The National Housing Strategy contains no specific provisions for supportive housing, even though one of the Strategy’s stated goals is to reduce chronic homelessness by 50%.[5] The AFB Recovery Plan would allocate $2 billion in new annual funding (for capital) for supportive housing.

In sum. The AFB Recovery Plan urges the federal government to create housing options to the point where, when we are hit by a future wave or new pandemic, all Canadians have a home in which to stay safe. Further, the downturn in the real estate market offers an opportunity for the Trudeau government to assist non-profit housing providers to acquire new stock in cost-effective ways.

The following individuals provided invaluable assistance with the affordable housing and homelessness chapter of the AFB Recovery Plan: Meaghan Bell, Michele Biss, Stéphan Corriveau, Katie-Sue Derejko, John Dickie, George Fallis, Sherwin Flight, Alex Hemingway, Graeme Hussey, Bruce Irvine, Brandi Kapell, Ron Kneebone, Brian Kreps, David Macdonald, Christina Maes Nino, Bernadette Majdell, Elsbeth Mehrer, Michael Mendelson, Jeff Morrison, Amanda Noble, Abe Oudshoorn, Steve Pomeroy, Tim Richter, Michal Rozworski, Natalie Spagnuolo, Marion Steele, Greg Suttor, Jennifer Tipple, Letisha Toop, Ricardo Tranjan, Stuart Trew, Samuel Watts and one anonymous source. I wish to also thank Susan Falvo, Hayley Gislason, Angela Regnier, Vincent St-Martin and Sarah Woodgate for assistance with this blog post. Any errors are mine.

 

Photo used with permission from Home Space Society.

 

[1] Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (2020, June 4). CMHC reviews underwriting criteria. Retrieved from CMHC website: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca

[2] Bainbridge, J., & Carrizales, T. J. (2017). Global homelessness in a post-recession world. Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, 24(1), 6. Retrieved from: https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol24/iss1/6/

[3] This proposal has been put forth by Marion Steele and also by a third-sector group of experts. For more information, see this recent Toronto Star opinion piece: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2020/05/24/a-lot-of-toronto-renters-cant-get-by-even-with-cerb-they-need-a-top-up-from-the-feds.html.

[4] Employment and Social Development Canada. (2018). Evaluation of the Homelessness Partnering Strategy: Final Report. Retrieved from the Government of Canada website: https://www.canada.ca

[5] Having said that, supportive housing has received Co-investment Fund financing.

David Hulchanski class discussion

David Hulchanski class discussion

by | Jun 21, 2020 | Canada, Cities, Government, Government Funding, Homeless, Housing, municipalities, Policy, Poverty, Social Housing, Social Policy, taxation

David Hulchanski class discussion

On 9 June 2020, I participated in a panel discussion in David Hulchanski’s graduate-level social housing and homelessness course at the University of Toronto. It included perspectives from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Participants included Kath Scanlon, Wendy Hayhurst, Andy Yan, Carolyn Whitzman, and Sharon Chisholm.[1]

Here are 10 things to know:

1. The English-speaking countries of the OECD are known for their relatively stingy social welfare systems. In other words, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom (along with both the United States and New Zealand) have relatively low levels of social spending and relatively low levels of taxation, relative to the other OECD countries. Subsidized housing is part of a country’s social welfare system and very much impacted by its other pieces (e.g., social assistance, labour market policies, etc.).

2. Not surprisingly, all English-speaking countries of the OECD also have serious affordable housing challenges and large amounts of homelessness. In England, families who lose their housing can subsequently be placed into “temporary accommodation” where they can stay up to 10 years. Years ago, such families were provided with social housing; but there’s so little turnover in England’s social housing units that now such households are almost always placed into the private rental sector.[2] Recent analysis by Steve Pomeroy in Canada looked at the period between 2011 and 2016. During that time, Canada lost more than 300,000 units of private-landlord housing that were affordable to lower-income households (and the financialization of housing is believed to be largely responsible for this).[3] During the same period, fewer than 20,000 subsidized units were created for low-income households across Canada.

3. Housing affordability challenges in all of these countries appear to be getting worse, largely due to the financialization of housing. The financialization of housing refers to the increased use of housing as an investment tool, rather than to serve social needs. It is often facilitated by public policy that makes it attractive for corporate interests to invest in housing, thereby jacking up the price.

4. Poorly-designed tax policies appear to encourage the financialization of housing. For example, in Australia, even people with median incomes have found it attractive to buy a property and rent it out; any losses they incur can be written off against their income. Australia’s capital gains tax system has also made it attractive to do this. One of the undesirable outcomes of this phenomenon is that Australia has a lot of landlords who are not terribly passionate about being landlords.

5. In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the financialization of housing. Both Leilani Farha (former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing) and Martine August (an emerging scholar based at the University of Waterloo) have written and spoken extensively on the topic over the past several years. And Canada’s just-launched Recovery For All campaign includes several demands related to the financialization of housing.

6. Perversely, large groups of each country’s respective population benefit from many of the same rules that create homelessness. When an existing homeowner sees the value of housing increase, they recognize that the value of their assets is growing. Further, homeowners in Australia, Canada and the UK pay no capital gains tax on the windfall earned from the sale of their primary residence, representing substantial foregone revenue for their national treasuries.

7. England has very landlord-friendly rules. Right now, a standard tenancy in England lasts between six and 12 months, after which point the landlord is under no obligation to renew the tenancy. (Fortunately, the UK government is now talking about changing that law.)

8. Authorities in England are starting to focus more on homelessness prevention. When a person becomes legally homeless in England, their reason for becoming homeless is recorded. Now, the single biggest cause is eviction from a private tenancy, and over time that’s grown as a reason. Local authorities have therefore been directed to prevent homelessness when a person is on the verge of an eviction (e.g., with temporary grants). This focus on prevention is getting big in England, but it’s quite reactive; the household in trouble needs to reach out to the authority for help.

9. There are some silver linings worth noting. In Australia, Canada and England, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an urgent imperative to deal with homelessness. For example, whereas so-called rough sleeping had previously been regarded as an intractable problem in England, a recent political commitment and funding enhancement essentially eliminated it (at least for now) in a matter of days.

10. Some panel participants encouraged ‘big thinking’ with respect to social housing. One participant suggested that housing advocates should advocate for social housing to eventually comprise 50% of all new housing units in Canada, noting we need to stop seeing social housing as the housing of last resort.

In Sum. Housing affordability challenges experienced in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom appear to stem from poorly designed public policy. Low aggregate levels of taxation make it more challenging for governments to make substantial investments in social policies, and pro-landlord public policies appear to drive up housing prices. But if bad public policy brings on a lack of affordable housing, good public policy can help address it. Let’s hope the Recovery For All campaign gains some traction here in Canada!

I wish to thank Susan Falvo, Wendy Hayhurst, David Hulchanski, Kath Scanlon, Vincent St-Martin and Carolyn Whitzman for assistance with this blog post. Any errors are mine.

 

[1] We followed the Chatham House Rule, so the present blog post will not state who made which comment.

[2] Forty years ago, social housing made up one-third of England’s total housing stock. Now, it makes up about 20% of total housing stock.

[3] The lost units in question had monthly rents of $750 or less.

Ten things to know about subsidized rental housing in Alberta

Ten things to know about subsidized rental housing in Alberta

by | Feb 20, 2020 | Aboriginal Peoples, Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Ending Homelessness, Fiscal policy, Government, Government Funding, Housing, Indigenous peoples, municipalities, Policy, Social Housing, Social Policy

Ten things to know about subsidized rental housing in Alberta

On February 27, the UCP Government of Jason Kenney will table its second budget. With that in mind, here are 10 things to know about subsidized rental housing in Alberta:

  1. Housing need has been increasing in Alberta. The percentage of Alberta households in core housing need has been rising steadily over the past three Census periods. In 2006, 10.1% of Alberta households were in core housing need; by 2011, this figure had risen to 10.7%; and in 2016, the figure stood at 11.4%. In 2016, this represented more than 164,000 Alberta households.
  1. Some household types face especially dire circumstances. Across Alberta, 30.6% of female lone-parent families are in core housing need, while 30.8% of seniors living alone are in core housing need. Further, the rate of core housing need for Status Indians is more than double the rate for non-Indigenous households (and these figures do not account for households living on reserve).[1]
  1. More than one in four persons experiencing absolute homelessness in Alberta is Indigenous. That’s according to Alberta’s 2018 Point-in-Time Count. It’s worth noting that Indigenous peoples make up just 7% of Alberta’s total population.
  1. On a per capita basis, Alberta has far fewer subsidized housing units than the rest of Canada.[2] According to the most recent Census, subsidized housing represents just 2.9% of Alberta’s housing units; for Canada as a whole, the figure is 4.2%.
  1. Comparing Alberta to British Columbia is instructive. As can be seen below, from 2007 until 2010, Alberta produced more housing units funded unilaterally by the provincial government than BC on an annual basis. But since 2011, BC has been outperforming Alberta in that respect. In fact, in 2017, BC’s provincial government funded more than 15 times as many housing units than Alberta, despite having a roughly similar overall population, and despite Alberta having an NDP government at the time.[3]

Note. Figures compiled by David Macdonald and Greg Suttor using provincial reporting. Figures only include unilateral provincial spending, and do not include cost-shared initiatives.

  1. The impact of Canada’s National Housing Strategy will be modest. Recent analysis by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer projects future federal housing spending to actually decrease over the next decade (relative to GDP). The same analysis projects that total spending on Indigenous housing by Canada’s federal government will be “substantially lower” going forward.
  1. When Alberta’s provincial government does fund new subsidized units, the process lacks transparency. Even when Rachel Notley’s NDP government was in power, housing funding was not allocated via a formal grant program through which non-profits (i.e., community housing/non-market housing providers) could apply for funding. Such a process has not been in place in Alberta since 2012.
  1. The Government of Alberta lacks a clear, public reporting structure for provincially-subsidized housing. For example, most Albertans—including very well- placed sources in the affordable housing sector—do not know: how much recent funding was used for repairs vs. new builds; how much of this funding has been dependent on cost-matching from other orders of government; what types of projects have received the funding; which types of households have been targeted; or to which municipalities the funding has flowed. This lack of transparency makes it very challenging for key actors in the non-profit housing and homeless-serving sectors to plan; it has also made it virtually impossible for key players in the sector to have a democratic dialogue about how public dollars are being allocated.
  1. In October 2019, the UCP government unveiled its first budget, announcing some housing cuts. Starting in 2020, operating budgets for Housing Management Bodies (HMBs) will be reduced by an average of 3.5%. There will also be a 24% reduction to the Rental Assistance Program, which provides financial assistance for low- to moderate-income households to assist with monthly rent payments for up to one year. This 24% reduction begins in 2020 and takes full effect within three years.
  1. There has been long-time speculation that the recent provincial funding reduction (or a portion of it) may be retargeted and used to match federal funding through the new Canada Housing Benefit. That program, set to take effect 1 April 2020, requires that the Government of Alberta match federal funding.[4] This speculation was confirmed in a 26 December 2019 Canadian Press article.

In sum. There is need for both more subsidized rental housing in Alberta and more transparency at the provincial level. In its upcoming provincial budget, the Jason Kenney government has the opportunity to address both issues.

Acknowledgements. I wish to thank the following individuals for invaluable assistance with this blog post: Zain Abedin, Damian Collins, Martina Jileckova, Jonn Kmech, Ron Kneebone, David Macdonald, Jedd Matechuk, Katrina Milaney, Jeff Morrison, Jenny Morrow, Steve Pomeroy, John Rook, Greg Suttor, Vincent St-Martin and one anonymous source. Any errors are mine.

[1] Rates of core housing need are not calculated in many of Canada’s First Nations communities, largely because in order to calculate core housing need, one must know the cost of market housing (which often does not exist in First Nations’ communities).

[2] According to Statistics Canada’s 2016 Census of Population, subsidized housing “includes rent geared to income, social housing, public housing, government-assisted housing, non-profit housing, rent supplements and housing allowances.”

[3] According to the 2016 Census, Alberta had a total population of 4,067,175, while BC had a total population of 4,648,055.

[4] The Canada Housing Benefit is expected to provide an average of $2,500/annually, per eligible household, to Canadians in housing need.

Ten things to know about poverty measurement in Canada

Ten things to know about poverty measurement in Canada

by | Oct 30, 2019 | Canada, Cities, Government, Housing, Income, Income Distribution, Income Inequality, Income Support, Labour Market, Macroeconomics, municipalities, population aging, Poverty, Poverty Reduction, Research and Data, seniors, Social Assistance, Social Housing, Social Policy, Stats Canada

Ten things to know about poverty measurement in Canada

On October 29, I gave a guest presentation to Professor Filipe Duarte’s master’s seminar class at the University of Windsor. The topic of my presentation was poverty measurement in Canada.

Here are 10 things to know.

  1. Use of the Low-Income Cut-Off (LICO) would suggest that poverty in Canada has decreased dramatically since the mid-1990s. LICO focuses on the amount of money spent by a family on ‘necessities’ (i.e., housing, food and clothing) as determined by a group of federal public servants. If a family is spending a substantially higher percentage of their income on such necessities—e.g., 20 percentage points higher than the average Canadian family—then the family in question falls below the LICO. The LICO was supposed to be recalculated on a regular basis to reflect changes in spending patterns, but that hasn’t happened since 1992 and is one likely reason for the reduction in poverty shown by this measure (having said that, the LICO has been adjusted each year for inflation). Today, very few experts take the LICO seriously.
  2. Use of the Low Income Measure (LIM) would suggest that poverty in Canada has seen mild fluctuations since the mid-1990s. LIM’s focus is on the family’s income, not on what they spend. A family whose income is below 50% of the national median income (adjusted for family size) is said to be poor according to this measure. LIM, in effect, measures income inequality among the bottom half of income earners. The LIM is useful for international comparisons (though it is far from perfect in that regard, as it looks only at income, not the availability of social programs). 
  3. Use of the Market Basket Measure (MBM) suggests that Canada has seen a major decrease in poverty over the past decade. With the MBM, public officials figure out the cost of a basket of goods and services they feel is sufficient for a standard of living “between the poles of subsistence and social inclusion.” Calculations are then made about how much such a basket costs (the cost of this basket has been estimated for 50 regions across Canada). The content of this basket is periodically adjusted, the last time being in 2011, and its value gets adjusted each year for inflation. If you’re poor according to the MBM, it’s because experts believe you could not afford that basket of goods in your community.

    Visual courtesy of Kevin Milligan.

  4. One of the LICO’s shortcomings is that it doesn’t do a good job of accounting for regional variations in the cost of living across Canada. The LICO (as mentioned above) also hasn’t been adjusted since 1992, meaning that it doesn’t currently account for how much things cost today or what people spend money on today (as Andrew Jackson notes, it doesn’t include the cost of Internet). Finally, LICO doesn’t easily allow for international comparisons. 
  5. One of the LIM’s shortcomings is that it can suggest that recessions are good for poverty reduction. As Alain Noël notes, the LIM is “sensitive to changes in the median income, which sometimes produces counterintuitive results. In a recession, for example, when the median income is flat, the poverty rate may seem to be decreasing while unemployment and economic hardship are increasing.” What’s more, the fact that LIM is based on national median income—as opposed to the median income for the province or territory in question—seems arbitrary to many. Indeed, Professor Noël further notes that “real median incomes vary considerably from one province to another.”
  6. Of the three major indicators, my own preference is the LIM. First, it avoids the inherent challenge of deciding what constitutes an appropriate a basket of goods and services in a country of 37 million people, spanning 10 million km2 and six time zones. Second, I think relativity is what’s really important here—if median income across Canada is increasing, then so too should everyone’s (and vice versa). Third, the LIM lends itself well to international comparisons. I’d like to see it calculated based on national median income for international comparisons, and also based on median income for the economic region in question, in order to provide a more meaningful number.
  7. The debate within Canada has largely ignored the need for indicators of assets. This point has been made by David Rothwell and Jennifer Robson, who note that income and assets are not always correlated. For example, a low-wage worker might have an income that brings them above the LIM, but they may also have $75,000 in student loans and credit card debt. Conversely, a senior could be relying exclusively on Old Age Security as a source of income while also owning a $2 million home outright. (Monitoring asset poverty might put pressure on provincial and territorial officials to stop discouraging asset accumulation among social assistance recipients.)
  8. It’s also important to directly measure material deprivation. For example, core housing need measures the affordability, suitability and adequacy of a person’s housing. Likewise, food insecurity measurement directly assesses the inadequacy or insecurity in access to food due to financial challenges. It’s also important to assess who has access to high-quality childcare and prescription medication. (For a critical analysis of the need to directly measure material deprivation, see this 2017 conference paper.)
  9. In August 2018, Canada’s federal government announced its formal adoption of the MBM as its official poverty measure. Its poverty reduction strategy also unveiled a dashboard of poverty-related indicators. This seems very much in line with a position taken by Peter Hicks in a recent blog post, in which he calls for “an evolving ‘dashboard’ of carefully selected indicators would be more useful than a single measure.” The new federal strategy will use the MBM to monitor progress—importantly, it will not use the MBM to determine program eligibility.
  10. Seniors make for an interesting case study here. According to the LIM, a great many seniors in Canada currently experience poverty. But according to the MBM, very few seniors in Canada currently experience poverty. As Andrew Jackson pointed out last year: “There is a huge difference between the LIM and MBM poverty rates for seniors (14.3% vs 5.1% in 2015.)” And this raises an important question: if Canada’s official poverty measure suggests there’s very little seniors’ poverty, to what extent will Canada’s federal government prioritize assistance for seniors?

In sum. The Trudeau government deserves praise for unveiling a dashboard of poverty indicators that will hopefully receive close attention from federal officials in partnership with provincial, territorial and municipal officials, as well as researchers and advocates. Having said that, Ron Kneebone reminds me that the MBM has yet to be formally adopted by provincial or territorial governments. There is also reason to be very concerned about what initiatives may or not be in store for seniors, given that the MBM suggests they currently experience very little poverty.

 

I wish to thank the following individuals for assistance with this blog post: Miles Corak, Filipe Duarte and his students, Susan Falvo, Reuben Ford, Rob Gillezeau, Seth Klein, Ron Kneebone, Andrew Jackson, Marc Lee, David Macdonald, Michael Mendelson, Allan Moscovitch, Geranda Notten, Charles Plante, Saul Schwartz, Richard Shillington, Vincent St-Martin, John Stapleton, Ricardo Tranjan, and Mike Veall. Any errors are mine.