Housing is a Human Right: Build Canada Homes Could Deliver on That Promise

Ottawa, ON (September 15, 2025): The National Right to Housing Network (NRHN) welcomes the federal government’s launch of Build Canada Homes (BCH), a new federal agency tasked with building affordable housing at scale.

“Housing is a human right,” says Michèle Biss, Executive Director at NRHN. “With Build Canada Homes, the federal government has an opportunity to genuinely address Canada’s growing housing and homelessness crisis with a human rights-based approach as required by the government’s own legislation.”

NRHN is particularly encouraged by the government’s commitments that BCH will focus primarily on non-market housing and work to reduce homelessness. The first wave of investments—including the Canada Rental Protection Fund, transitional and supportive housing, and Nunavut Housing Corporation— indicates a willingness to prioritize people in greatest need, specifically people experiencing homelessness and communities in the North.

NRHN also applauds the appointment of Ana Bailão as Chief Executive Officer of BCH. In her role as Toronto’s Deputy Mayor and Chair of the Planning and Housing Committee, Bailão helped introduce a right-to-housing charter for the city. Her leadership offers BCH the opportunity to embed human rights values into its DNA from day one.

“While we would like to see an explicit commitment to ending homelessness, we are encouraged to see the federal government investing in community housing. Under the leadership of Ana Bailão, a past champion of the human right to housing in the city of Toronto, we are hopeful that this entity will be set up with ambitious targets for deeply affordable housing from the very beginning,” continued Biss.

To fulfill its mandate, Build Canada Homes must align its work with Section 5 of the National Housing Strategy Act—Canada’s right to housing legislation—which requires Canada to develop and maintain a national housing strategy consistent with the human right to housing.

NRHN also echoes the calls of partners across the housing justice sector to ensure that BCH embeds a “For Indigenous, By Indigenous” mandate, with at least 20% of projects led by Indigenous organizations.

“The measure of BCH’s success will not be how many units are built—it will be whether Canada lives up to its commitments to progressively realizing the right to safe, adequate, and accessible housing and deliver results for those experiencing homelessness and core housing need,” says Jessica Tan, Communications Lead at NRHN. “Build Canada Homes could be transformative if it is set up to end homelessness, protect renters, and ensure deeply affordable housing is prioritized.”

For more information visit, www.housingrights.ca 

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NRHN’s recommendations to Build Canada Homes:

1. Create clear targets to end homelessness in the shortest possible time
2. Put community housing providers in lead roles
3. Use a consistent, income-based definition of affordability
4. Require transparency and accountability on how tenant rights are respected in all BCH-funded projects
5. Embed a “For Indigenous, By Indigenous” mandate, with at least 20% of projects led by Indigenous organizations… and more (Read our full list of recommendations here).

For more information, contact:

Jessica Tan
Communications Lead
National Right to Housing Network
Phone: 613-621-4575
Email: jessica@housingrights.ca