communications toolkit
Companion kit to the New Federal Government Action Guide to address the financialization of housing in Canada
Context:
In 2023, Canada launched its first-ever review panel on the financialization of purpose-built rental housing.
Financialization is widely recognized as a key, systemic issue driving Canada’s housing and homelessness crisis. It is known to contribute to unaffordable rents, increased evictions, renovictions, poor maintenance, community displacement, and discrimination—especially for racialized and other marginalized communities.
Through written and oral hearings, the review panel gathered extensive evidence and testimony on the impacts of financialization from civil society and those with lived experience. These testimonies went on to shape the review panel’s final recommendations to the federal government on how to address financialization and uphold the right to housing for all.
While some recommendations have been adopted, government action to address financialization remains insufficient and fails to uphold the full extent of the human rights commitments set out under the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act.
Purpose of this guide:
Advocacy is stronger when we all work together with a unified voice.
This toolkit is to help us all align our messaging and policy asks (and promoting the New Federal Government Action Guide), so we can convince the federal government to put more effort into confronting the financialization of housing by fully implementing the review panel recommendations and strengthening tenant protections across the country.
**Please note: This language guide is only meant for partners, please do not share this outside of your organizations.**
How your organization can participate:
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- Promote the New Federal Government Action Guide throughout your organization’s communications channels.
- Integrate this key messaging throughout your day-to-day advocacy and government relations work as you see fit.
- Sample copy, as well as graphics, are provided below to help you amplify this core message and promote the Guide.
How to use this message guide:
Make this messaging your own! We recognize that each organization is coming into this conversation with your own contexts and different audiences. The key messaging provided below are just an example of what you can say in your advocacy efforts while also helping you stay aligned with the core message.
Graphics:
Graphics to coincide with the messaging below can be accessed here.
Resources:
Messaging
Use the sample copy below for your organization’s social media, newsletter, website or integrate it into your broader communications / government relations work.
In the first 100 days of this new government, the federal government must fully commit to its promises made under the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act to uphold housing as a human right and genuinely use all appropriate means to prevent the devasting impacts the financialization of housing has on communities across the country. Here are our calls to action: https://housingrights.ca/wp-content/uploads/Financialization-Government-Action-Guide-2025_FINAL.pdf
General Messaging
In its first 100 days, we’re calling on the new federal government to uphold its own commitments to the right to housing by fully implementing the recommendations it received from the financialization review panel last year. It’s time to treat housing as the fundamental human right that it is instead of a commodity to be bought and sold for profit.
Financialization is fueling Canada’s housing crisis. It contributes to skyrocketing rents, evictions, discrimination, and displacement. We’re calling on the new federal government to uphold its commitments to the human right to housing and fully implement the recommendations it received from the financialization review panel.
The government made a commitment in 2019 to treat housing as a fundamental human right under the National Housing Strategy Act. We’re asking this new government to deliver on this promise. In the first 100 days:
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- Implement the recommendations from the financialization review panel
- Prioritize those in greatest need
- Use the maximum of available resources
For decades, housing in Canada has been treated as an investment asset by private investors, rather than a human right for all. This has driven up housing prices and decreased the number of affordable housing stock. It’s time to stop scapegoating migrants for a housing system that favours developers and start treating housing as the fundamental human right that it is.
In the first 100 days of this new federal government, the government is at a crossroads. It can either:
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- Protect renters and those experiencing homelessness by upholding housing as a human right; or
- Or keep letting profits come before people
The choice is obvious. It’s time to end the financialization of housing in Canada and uphold housing as the fundamental human right that it is.
The financialization of housing is a key driver of Canada’s housing and homelessness crisis. It leads to unaffordable rents, evictions, poor housing conditions, and deepens inequality—especially for racialized and marginalized communities. In its first 100 days, the federal government must fully commit to upholding the right to housing under the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act. This means:
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- Implementing the recommendations from the financialization review panel
- Prioritizing people most in need
- Engaging those with lived experience
- Using all available resources
Housing is a human right—not a commodity.
In 2019, Canada passed the National Housing Strategy Act, recognizing housing as a fundamental human right. But today, the financialization of housing—treating homes as investments instead of places to live—continues to devastate communities by contributing to skyrocketing rents, eviction, discrimination, and much more. As the new government takes office, it must use its first 100 days to:
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- Deliver on its human rights promises
- Act urgently to address the harmful impacts of financialization
- Put people—not profit—at the center of housing policy
A human rights approach is the only way forward.
Specific Calls to Action Messaging
Government can’t fix the housing crisis without fully understanding the real challenges and barriers renters go through. In its first 100 days, we’re calling on the new federal government to create a plan to collect better data on tenant experiences—especially around affordability and access.”
Tenants are organizing to push back on financialized landlords across the country—but they need support. We’re calling on the federal government to increase investment in and reopen applications to the Tenant Protection Fund so more organizers can access funding for advocacy and research—and ultimately strengthen renter protections so no one will be evicted into homelessness again.
The solution to the housing crisis isn’t just to build, build, build—we need to build the RIGHT type of housing. We’re calling on the new federal government to invest more into more community housing such as:
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- Social/public housing
- Co-op housing
- Non-profit housing
Canada’s current housing policies are fueling the financialization of housing—treating housing as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit instead of a human right. In its first 100 days, we’re calling on the new federal government to:
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- Close tax loopholes
- Regulate the private sector
- Review low-interest lending practice
- And align investment with human rights principles.
Without rent control, tenants in some provinces and territories are facing impossible increases in rent, forcing them into homelessness. Without any market regulation, in some places in this country, tenants can wake up to a notice from their landlord for a 100% rent increase. We are calling on the federal government in the first 100 days to outline their plan to evaluate and implement a strategy on rent regulation.
The financialization of housing is undermining the right to housing across Canada. To respond meaningfully, in its first 100 days, the federal government must:
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- Create a plan to foster better data collection on real tenant experiences
- Increase investment and re-open the Tenant Protection Fund to strengthen local organizing
- Invest in more community housing—public, co-op, and non-profit
- Align financial and investment practices with human rights principles
- Outline a plan to evaluate and implement a strategy on rent regulation – including rent and vacancy control
The status quo is not working. It’s time to treat housing as the fundamental human right that it is.
Tenants across Canada are being priced out, pushed out, and ignored. To better protect renters and uphold the right to housing, the federal government must take urgent action in its first 100 days—including:
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- Creating a national plan to collect data on tenants’ real experiences
- Reopening the Tenant Protection Fund to support grassroots advocacy
- Invest in social, co-op, and non-profit housing
- Proposing incentives that align housing investments with human rights principles
- Make a plan to evaluate and implement a strategy on rent regulation – including rent and vacancy control