A National Housing Mission
The Right to Shelter for All is included in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is shameful that Canada has one of the worst affordable housing crisis in the developed world which sees increasing numbers of Canadians living in the streets. It is patently apparent that the for-profit private sector will not solve the problem. Despite incentives, private sector housing starts are down while the need grows. There are isolated centres of government stimulated housing construction but they cannot match the need.
The Canadian public views this crisis as a number one public concern and will support a realistic plan and accompanying public expenditures for the implemention of a plan for the building of a million affordable housing units. A national housing strategy, planning and implementation is the only realistic way that the problem will be solved.
Since nothing sells like success, this housing mission can be modelled after the success and credibility of Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission which created five million affordable housing units with a totally publicly funded and implemented plan over a 12-year period.
A made in Canada plan would mobilize all progressive forces e.g. the labour movement, the cooperative housing movement, social housing advocates, municipal governments, First Nations and others that would come together with the leadership of federal and provincial governments to plan, cost and implement a Canadian Housing Plan.
The Canadian public would unquestionably give wide support for such a plan. With such public support it would be politically unwise for provincial governments of any stripe to stand against a plan that would provide affordable housing.
As former NDP federal leadership candidate, Pierre Decasse, stated and Jack Layton emphasized, “to have the results you have never had, you need to do what you have never done”.
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