Canada continues to face a multitude of challenges that are deepening the housing crisis, including profit-driven corporate investments in housing (i.e., the “financialization” of housing). To address these pressing concerns and demonstrate a path forward, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released their Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) for 2023, crafted alongside various NRHN partners.

In its first chapter on housing affordability and homelessness, the AFB cites Canada’s international and domestic obligations to uphold the fundamental human right to housing (including the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act) and “makes Canada’s signature on these documents a reality by committing to ending homelessness within a decade.”

In direct response to the financialization of housing, it also “takes the wind out of housing investors’ sails and creates new affordable rental, community, social, and co-op housing.”