Report urges feds to spend more on affordable housing, wipe out homelessness
Posted Oct 20, 2016 11:41:05 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A new report on homelessness proposes nearly doubling federal spending on affordable housing over the next 10 years to effectively eliminate the problem.
Two groups — the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness say — that would effectively make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.
The report, submitted in advance of a promised Liberal national housing strategy, recommends that proposed federal spending of about $22.6 billion over the next 10 years be increased to about $43.8 billion.
It says the increase would amount to an additional $50 per capita annually.
The report also says the spending strategy would help end a problem that costs the Canadian economy more than $7 billion a year.
The federal government has already promised to increase spending on affordable housing, but the two groups say those increases don’t go nearly far enough.