Non-market housing 101

La version française de ce billet se trouve ici.

On 21 May 2026, I gave a presentation at Changing Lives & Building Community: How Calgary is tackling the affordable housing crisis, an event sponsored by the Calgary Affordable Housing Foundation. The title of my presentation was “Non-market housing 101” and my slides are available here.

Here are 10 things to know:

1. It’s important to define non-market housing. Non-market housing, at least in Canada, refers to housing owned and operated by a non-profit or public entity. It is sometimes referred to as social housing or community housing (Ray Sullivan discusses the terminology here).

2. One of the benefits of non-market housing is that it can help keep rent levels in check over the long term. Over time, rent levels in non-market housing remain lower than in equivalent housing owned by for-profit entities (see this study for evidence). That’s in part because non-market providers have a mandate to keep rents low.[1]Corporate by-laws forbid the non-profit provider’s board directors or members from personally profiting from increased revenue gained from increasing the rent.

3. Another advantage of non-market housing is that it preserves a community asset. If non-market housing assets are ever sold, any proceeds from the sale must be retained by the non-market housing provider (the proceeds cannot be used for personal or private gain). And if a non-profit housing entity dissolves, any proceeds of the asset itself must be transferred to another non-profit.

4. Canada has very little non-market housing. Just 4.4% of Canada’s total housing stock is non-market housing (see this analysis). By contrast, the OECD average is 7%. For the Netherlands, the figure is nearly 35% (see this analysis for international comparisons).

5. All orders of government in Canada are generally reluctant to assist non-market housing providers with operating costs. On the supply side, the Government of Canada has not provided operating funding for new housing since the early 1990s (with the exception of on-reserve housing). Provincial and municipal support for operating costs, meanwhile, is typically inadequate and unpredictable (see this piece I wrote last year).[2]

6. Federal spending on non-market housing is projected to decrease over the next decade. According to this recent report by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer: “Federal planned spending on housing programs is set to decline 56 per cent, from $9.8 billion in 2025-26 to $4.3 billion in 2028-29 due to the expiry of funding for existing programs and cuts set out in Budget 2025.”

7. Alberta’s provincial government provides capital support for new non-market housing. Alberta does this primarily through the Affordable Housing Partnership Program. Supported units receive approximately $85,000 each in provincial support. While this can help a project enormously, it’s worth noting that in Calgary at the moment, it can easily cost in the $300,000-$400,000 range to create a modest one-bedroom unit (and that doesn’t include the ongoing operating costs required after the unit is built).

8. Alberta’s got a lot of catching up to do. In the early 1980s, Alberta had nearly as many non-market housing units (per capita) as the Canadian average. Today, that rate has dropped to roughly half the Canadian rate (on a per capita basis). I discuss this in a forthcoming book chapter.

9. Alberta’s provincial government also offers tax relief to non-market housing providers. As of January 2025, non-market housing providers in the province are exempt from property taxes (previously, only government-owned affordable housing properties were exempt).

10. On the demand side, Alberta’s provincial government supports 12,000 rent supplements. There are three streams ranging in support from approximately $200/month to approximately $900/month. Federal funding assists with this. However, it’s important to be mindful that there are more than 150,000 Alberta households in core housing need.

In sum. When government invests in non-market housing, they create a community asset that helps keep rent levels in check over the long term. In Canada, our governments need to do much more of this.

I wish to thank Sarah Button, Greg Dewling, Lisa Ker, Christina Maes Nino, Mike Meldrum, Jenny Morrow, Gautam Mukherjee, Brian Pincott, Steve Pomeroy, Ray Sullivan, Annick Torfs, and Sarah Woodgate for assistance with this blog post.

[1] Government regulatory requirements also play a role in keeping rents low in non-market units.

[2] One reason operating funding is important is that low-income renters have very little purchasing power, as discussed in this recent report about social assistance in Alberta.