What can European housing models do for Canada’s affordability problems? -Winnipeg Free Press

TORONTO – Housing experts who have long supported moving new home construction from the suburbs to urban centers are calling for a similar policy approach, saying many ideas that float on the fringes of society in Canada have been successful elsewhere and deserve a more central place in the world. national conversation

They argue that widespread adoption of government-supported affordable housing, the growth of alternative models such as co-operatives and co-housing, and the increased use of advanced construction techniques could play a role in improving Canada’s housing system.

Such ideas, which have gained more traction in Canada in recent years, are already well established in many parts of Europe.

“There are so many exciting examples that Canada can learn from,” said Carolyn Whitzman, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and author of the recently published book “Housing Facts: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis.”

The situation in some places, such as Vienna, where a quarter of residents live in social housing, arose as a result of very specific historical circumstances, but other regions show what is still possible today.

France has committed to making 20 percent of its housing “off-market” – whether subsidized or privately owned – by purchasing buildings and building new ones. Whitzman said he achieved roughly 17 percent while managing to integrate homes into existing neighborhoods to maintain diversity.

Canada adopted the same non-market construction goals in the 1970s, he noted, but abandoned that approach in the 1990s when the federal government pulled out of the housing construction business and financing dried up.

Places like France, Denmark and Austria have laid out longer-term financing plans for affordable homes by implementing systems where governments provide subsidized loans that are rolled into new loans when repaid decades later.

“This type of revolving fund is like the gold standard because it means the policy is sustainable,” Whitzman said. “It needs to be considered on 30-year timelines.”

The Danish system has helped create around 21 percent of non-market housing by 2022, according to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which says the Netherlands has 34 percent. According to the OECD’s determination, this rate in Canada is approximately 3.5 percent.

The federal government has launched multiple financing programs to increase housing, including a $55 billion apartment construction loan program, a $14 billion affordable housing fund and a $4 billion rapid housing initiative.

While some programs, such as rapid housing, specifically target the homeless and people in dire housing need, Whitzman believes that government programs in general do not work well enough for low-income people; This is partly due to a vague definition of what affordable actually means.

“There’s an argument that if there’s enough supply, it will eventually reach low-income people,” he said. “But that would take 30 or 40 years, and now we are facing a housing crisis.”

Stable financing and long-term commitments to off-market housing also allow off-market builders to grow large enough to become more sustainable. In Finland, which pioneered the ‘housing first’ approach to ending homelessness, which essentially involves providing housing to everyone who needs it, the non-profit Y Foundation is the fourth largest landlord in the country.

Whitzman said there are some large-scale home builders in Canada, but there is room for growth and consolidation.

“If you’re an off-market provider, you need to be able to go to the bank and say, ‘Hi, I want $80 million,'” he said. “There are very few out-of-market developers who can do that these days.”

Providing non-market housing, as well as greater diversity in housing options in general, is part of making the entire housing system more stable, said Sasha Tsenkova, a professor at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.

“Diversity is really critical to resilience,” he said.

Diversity of housing supply, which includes non-market rentals, market rentals with guaranteed tenure and price control, and a variety of housing types to purchase, reduces pressure to enter the market and allows for a more stable progression up the housing ladder. in question.

“People don’t actually have to make the choice to become homeowners,” Tsenkova said.

“So a 25-year-old doesn’t have to commit to homeownership and then be constrained in terms of workforce or mobility or education choices or life choices.”

By creating policies that make homeownership less necessary, he said, he’s helping to move away from the asset-driven mindset in the system that dominates Canada.

Diversity of housing types could also lead to growth in areas such as cooperatives that come in several models, or cohousing, which are community-oriented developments where units are individually owned but with an emphasis on shared space.

Cohousing is also gaining traction, with the federal government allocating $1.5 billion to help develop more cooperative housing. Some examples include Treehouse Village Ecohousing in Bridgewater, NS, Little Mountain Cohousing in Vancouver and a handful of others on the West Coast.

“It’s important for Canadians to know that there are many other ways to live,” said Ren Thomas, an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Planning.

“It’s not just about renting in a high-rise apartment building or owning a single-family unit or a single-family home.”

There are innovations on the construction side as well as different types of building ownership, Thomas said, noting that places like Sweden have widely adopted modular building techniques that make construction faster and potentially cheaper.

“The construction techniques they use are quite advanced and of course they have EU sustainability standards, they are more concerned with climate change.”

Canada is also working to build modular construction, but this too will require long-term commitments and stable demand to be successful.

European countries are far from solving the widespread housing shortage around the world, with waiting lists sometimes lasting years and rising rents to receive supportive housing. But there is no easy solution to such an expensive, controversial and long-term problem.

While Canada has ramped up numerous programs, results so far have been mixed after being out of the game for many years, Whitzman said.

“In part, the federal government has been out of housing policy for three decades and has made a lot of mistakes,” he said.

“We are still in baby steps.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2024.