In one year — 2005 — The federal government of Canada guaranteed 746,157 mortgages to provide housing security for homeowners.
How fared those unable to afford to buy a house? From 1980 to 2005 — 35 years — the federal government financed 633,300 social housing units, 100,000 less than the number of mortgages it guaranteed in 2005.
How did Canada come to blindly fuel the national obsession for home ownership for the middle class, while neglecting a far more vulnerable class of citizens?
The question is one that many that nations are now facing as the costs of both ownership and rental slowly squeeze thousands, even millions, of citizens towards life on the streets.
Jen St. Denis unpacks Canada’s actions in a sequence of events that explain one nation’s sorry story. Read more in The Tyee: Shut Out: How Families Have Fallen Off The Housing Ladder
