New CMHC core need data again shows the need for a portable housing benefit

In the News …

One in Four Canadians Who Rent Have Core Housing Needs

(So, why is this ‘good’ for landlords?)

Amid the continuing onslaught by all levels of government to win votes from tenants in their bids to stay employed (and in power) at the expense of landlords, there remains one sobering and undeniable fact: nothing any level of government has done or is currently doing will reduce the housing and affordable housing crises.

Even CMHC’s $16 billion program to encourage housing initiatives is fatally flawed–it provides nothing for sustaining rental housing after the buidlings are constructed. Some municipalities in Ontario are now abandoning their self-owned and operated affordable housing initiatives. They’ve discovered that indiscriminately charging low rents amid spiralling costs is not a sustainable strategy. One municipality in particular is spending $107 of the taxpayers’ money for every $100 it collects in rent in one of its ‘affordable housing’ properties. Toronto has a $2 billion backlog of maintenance and repair issues, and will be removing a net 1,100 units from its rental inventory this year.

The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA) wrote that CMHC reported in November 2017 that 1 in 4 tenants (and 1 in 15 homeowners) were in core housing need. The great majority pay more than 30% of their gross household income towards rent.

Landlords can take some solace that there will continue to be for the foreseeable future a large  surplus of tenant applicants to chose from for every available rental unit. Landlords must  select tenants who are most certain to meet their rent obligations so that the landlord can in turn meet their own mortgage commitments. And rents will continue to rise as long as demand far outstrips supply … or at least until small-to-medium rental property owners are bankrupted by ‘fair’ tenant legislation.