This timeline provides an overview of some of the key housing issues faced by communities across Ontario and how governments have responded to these issues over the past 50 years, including a detailed look at how the pandemic has exacerbated existing issues. It shows that, as investments in affordable housing have dwindled, housing insecurity has grown – especially among the most vulnerable communities.
I don’t agree. This is only true because supply is so badly constrained. If each province had another million homes tomorrow, with the biggest cities building another 200 thousand plus a year until capacity is greater than demand, such a thing wouldn’t happen. It’s entirely because people were allowed to believe that a necessity to life could be treated like investible asset despite being an entirely non-performing asset.
It’s like hoarding wheat, then blocking farmers from increasing production so that the value of your wheat stockpile grows. Yes, it technically works, but that’s because you’re artificially preventing the market from doing its job. The value of homes only go up because demand rises without supply keeping up, and various housing associations and interest groups have kept it that way to make their investments grow instead of prioritizing on making this country more livable.
The fixing taxes can fix things, but they’re not the root problem. It’s the sheer lack of development, and if normal developers won’t do their damn job, then it’s the government’s job to step in and fix things like it once did.