The Canada Mortgage And Housing Corporation (CMHC) is the country’s federal housing agency. In the roughest sense it is the equivalent of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Recently, it reported that by 2030, the resolution of a chronic and growing housing affordability crisis can only be solved by finding the wherewithal to build an additional 3.5 million houses.
Affordablehousingaction.org posted a blog discussing reasons why the private development industry is unlikely to contribute significantly to the closing of this enormous gap between what we have and what we need1.
Could the Canadian federal government, either alone or through/with the cooperation of the provinces, tackle such an enormous task as warfare within the country to directly preserve the health and welfare of its citizens?
As it turns out, there’s a fine example of ‘yes indeed,’ in our own hemisphere, involving a country with far less economic clout than Canada.
To explore its achievements, it is necessary to step aside from the enormous antipathy with which the U.S. views the country of Venezuela — its socialist politics and policies, its uncooperative leaders and their lack of homage due to the greatest country in the world.
Difficult as it can be to step away from any action or attitude born in the USA, it’s worth considering Venezuela’s housing achievements if only as a measure of what a smaller country, with a determination to go directly to economic war on behalf of its citizens’ prosperity, can actually achieve. The picture above shows housing construction in that country.
Read more in teleSUR: Bolivarian Revolution Has Delivered 4.1 Million Dwellings
