CHF Canada media release

Co-operative housing can help in reducing poverty

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April 23, 2009, Ottawa The federal government can do more to reduce poverty, without increasing its current housing spending, Nicholas Gazzard, Executive Director of the Co‑operative Housing Federation of Canada told a Parliamentary committee looking at the government’s role in reducing poverty in Canada.

“On average, Canadian households pay 19% of their incomes for shelter. But for households in the lowest 10% income bracket, the shelter burden is fully 66% of income. The cost of housing severely affects the ability of many Canadians to meet other necessary costs of day-to-day living, quite aside from their ability – or rather lack of it – to invest in their own futures. This figure includes disproportionate numbers of seniors, the frail elderly, those with disabilities, new immigrants and one-parent households.”

Gazzard told the federal Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) that the government could adopt two specific measures for a housing-related anti-poverty strategy.

• Ensure that federal housing spending is tied to reducing core housing need.  At present, there is no direct link between federal housing spending, most of which is transferred to other levels of government, and reducing core housing need. The federal government should ensure full accountability for federal housing transfers to the provinces and territories by requiring measurable outcomes in housing need reduction.
• Maintain current levels of spending on the “legacy programs” (the programs, mostly federal, that have delivered some 650,000 units of social housing over the past 60 years). Funding agreements for these programs are beginning to expire and will do so in large numbers over the next 10 years. Merely by maintaining the existing levels of federal spending on these programs, the government can protect the rent-geared-to-income (RGI) capacity for Canada’s social housing providers so they can continue to provide housing that is affordable for low-income Canadians.

“Canada’s 2,200 housing co‑ops want to continue to build safe communities that help individuals and families break the cycle of poverty,” Gazzard told the committee.

CHF Canada is the national voice of the Canadian co‑operative housing movement. Its members include nearly 900 non-profit housing co‑operatives and other organizations across Canada. More than a quarter of a million Canadians live in housing co‑ops, in every province and territory.

For more information:

Nicholas Gazzard, Executive Director (613) 230-2201 ext. 230, or (613) 293-8913 (cell) ngazzard@chfcanada.coop

Merrilee Robson, Program Manager, Communications, 1-877-533-2667, ext. 122, or (778) 227-3864 (cell) mrobson@chfcanada.coop

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