NRHN collaborated with over 40 organizations including renters, advocates, and housing leaders from across Canada in May 2025 for two days to reflect on how we can advance the human right to housing.

This post was written by Misha Khan, the Strategic Development Manager at the National Right to Housing Network (NRHN).

Reflections on Canada’s First National Right to Housing Convening 

On the heels of the 2025 federal election, renters, advocates, organizers, and housing experts from across the country came together in Ottawa to reflect, share, and imagine how Canada can protect renters and uphold security of tenure as part of the human right to adequate housing.

The conversations that took place over the course of two days were honest and full of energy. People spoke about the mounting pressures renters are facing in their communities, the policies that are failing to protect renters from losing their homes, and the collective strength it would take to change a housing system that’s constantly working against them. 

Bringing people together across regions and sectors is never easy, especially in a moment when so many are stretched thin and are responding to the deepening housing and homelessness crisis. Yet this gathering, made possible through the support of the Department of Justice, offered something rare: a chance to slow down, listen, and build consensus on our advocacy priorities together.

We centered around one urgent question: What will it take to protect security of tenure for renters across Canada? 

The Reality Renters are Facing

Across the country, renters are living through compounding crises. Rents continue to rise faster than wages, and no-fault evictions – like renovictions and demovictions – continue to uproot individuals and families with few protections. Affordable housing is scarce, and once displaced, people often have nowhere to go.

These pressures show up in daily life as impossible trade-offs: families spending most of their income on rent, students taking on debt just to afford a room, and seniors being forced to leave the communities they’ve called home for decades. 

The conversations at the gathering reflected how widespread and systemic these challenges have become: Canada’s rental system leaves too many people one step away from crisis. Availability of genuinely affordable and accessible housing is at a historic low, while corporate landlords continue to acquire older, affordable buildings, renovate them, and re-list at prices far beyond what renters can afford. Meanwhile, social housing stock is struggling to keep pace with rising housing needs and protections for renters vary drastically from one province or territory to another, creating a patchwork of rights that fail to guarantee stability. For renters living paycheck to paycheck, even a small disruption such as an unexpected repair bill, or a few weeks without work, can set off a cycle of housing precarity that’s nearly impossible to escape. 

These conditions are not experienced equally. Indigenous, Black, and racialized renters, gender-diverse people, renters with disabilities, and low-income households face the steepest barriers to finding and keeping housing. They are more likely to be discriminated against by landlords, to experience overcrowded or unsafe conditions, and to be pushed to the margins of the rental market.

Security of tenure is about the ability to live without fear of displace, to feel safe in your home, and to build roots in your community. When renters can count on that stability, they are able to participate fully in their lives and communities. When they can’t, the impacts ripple outward, touching families, neighbourhoods, and entire regions. 

Inside the Housing Rights Convening 

Over the two days, the conversations moved between large group discussions, breakout sessions, and informal moments of connection. The space was thoughtfully facilitated by Nora Sheffe and Jane Van Ryn from Sheffe Consulting, who guided participants through each discussion and helped weave together the many perspectives in the room.

The convening was accessible for both English and French-speaking participants, with a whisper translator ensuring that everyone could engage fully in their preferred language. We began this work by setting up the space and then moving into a PESTEL analysis – looking at the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal contexts that influence renters’ realities.

At each table, participants spoke about what they’re witnessing on the ground. Some described the growing gap between government commitments, and the conditions people are actually living in. Others talked about the financialization of housing and how corporate landlords are changing what it means to rent. We heard about the spread of digital tools, like tenant screening systems and algorithmic rent-settings, and how they’re creating new barriers for low-income renters. Environmental discussions centered on how climate retrofits and redevelopment can displace renters if equity isn’t built into these processes from the start. And throughout the legal and policy discussions, there was a clear frustration with the patchwork of provincial and territorial tenancy laws and the lack of consistent enforcement of rights. 

Participants also spent time reimagining what rights-based, decolonial housing advocacy could look like. Indigenous leaders spoke about the need to move beyond inclusion toward Indigenous-led housing systems, where concepts like rent, ownership, and stewardship are understood differently – as relationships to land and community rather than transactions. Others reflected on how solidarity between movements is essential: between tenants, unions, climate justice advocates, and housing providers working toward the same goal of safe, adequate, and affordable homes for all.

Between the structured sessions, people found moments to connect, to share stories, swap strategies, and reflect on what collective action could look like in the months ahead. In the evening of the first day, a bilingual evening panel was held with former Minister Jean-Yves Duclos (responsible for introducing the National Housing Strategy Act) and experts Janine Harvey, Dania Majid, and the Federal Housing Advocate, Marie-Josée Houle. There was momentum in the room, grounded in honesty but also in possibility. By the end of the second day, every wall was covered in notes and ideas, reminders that solutions already exist in our communities. The task now is ensuring that those voices shape what comes next.

Key Insights from the Right to Housing Convening

Across discussions, a few key themes kept surfacing. Accountability and meaningful implementation came up again and again. People described a feeling that governments at every level continue to make housing commitments without consequences when those promises are broken, but that the Renters’ Bill of Rights, introduced in Budget 2024, could provide a meaningful opportunity for the federal government to intervene and provide cohesion through federal leadership – but that we need political will to make this a reality.

Without tools like a strong and enforceable Renters’ Bill of Rights (with conditional infrastructure funding for provinces and territories) or other consistent national standards, tenant rights look different depending on where you live, and renters pay the price. People called for mechanisms that ensure governments are not just making promises but delivering on them, through clear legislation, transparent reporting, and conditions on federal funding that reflect their human rights obligations.

The mechanisms established under the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) were seen as a key framework for this overall work. The review panel creates a pathway to bring systemic housing issues to the national level, where tenants and communities can demonstrate how weak or inconsistent protections are violating the right to housing. These types of processes help connect the dots, showing that renovictions, inadequate renter protections, and broken eviction systems are not isolated problems but symptoms of deeper structural failures that require federal attention and coordinated response.

Security of tenure emerged again and again as the foundation of housing justice, and how strengthening it means changing the conditions that make renting precarious in the first place. Participants identified concrete steps, including: 

• • Ending fixed-term leases;
  • Stopping no-fault evictions; 
  • Implementing national rent and vacancy control; 
  • Developing a consistent definition of affordability in relation to income; and 
  • Tackling the financialization of rental housing 

Another major theme was the urgent need to revitalize supportive and community housing systems. Participants described how the models and funding structures that exist today have changed little since the 1980s, even as people’s needs have grown more complex. Many spoke about the gaps in access to wraparound support including mental health care, harm reduction, and trauma-informed services that make it difficult for people to maintain stable housing. Across the room, the phrase “public money for public good” resonated strongly and highlighted the need to align funding with human rights objectives rather than market returns.  

Building on earlier conversations, participants also discussed what it means to truly integrate Indigenous leadership and decolonial practice into the housing movement. The focus was on action: creating space, resources, and decision-making power for Indigenous-led housing systems, and ensuring that these approaches are recognized as central (not parallel) to the realization of the right to housing in Canada.

Throughout these conversations, a sense of alignment began to take hold. The same ideas were being voiced from different corners of the room, across regions, sectors, and perspectives. People were not only naming what’s broken – they were articulating what a rights-based housing system could look like in practice.

Advancing Housing Rights: What Comes Next 

On the final afternoon, I looked around the room and saw small groups of people deep in conversation: tenant advocates sharing ideas with lawyers, community organizers comparing notes on what’s working in their regions, people scribbling next steps on flipcharts covered in bright marker.

It was a reminder that progress often starts in spaces like this: where people listen, learn, and begin to imagine something different together. The convening showcased how implementing the right to housing is about building on what communities already know and ensuring that those most affected by housing injustice have the power and platform to lead the way.

As we move forward, we will be connecting the insights from this convening to our next phase of national coordination and knowledge-sharing. We’re grateful to everyone who made the journey to Ottawa, and to the Department of Justice for resourcing this important work.