Canada protecting and expanding affordable housing

MANITOBA, Canada – Everyone deserves to succeed. But today, for too many Canadians, your hard work isn’t paying off like it did for previous generations. Your paycheque doesn’t go as far as costs go up, and saving enough seems harder and harder. It doesn’t have to be this way. Every generation should get a fair chance to get ahead.

One of the biggest pressures on people right now is housing, especially for young Canadians and low- and middle-income families who rent. In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of affordable homes have been lost in Canada ‒ some demolished and not replaced, others sold to speculators and large corporations. With skyrocketing rents, renovations, a lack of housing options, and tenants being priced out of their communities, for renters, it feels like the deck is stacked against them.

We’ve taken bold action to build more homes, faster, improve access to housing, and make homes more affordable – and we need to do more.

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced the launch of a new $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund to protect affordable housing and create thousands of new affordable apartments.

A key measure in the upcoming budget 2024, the Fund will provide $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions to non-profit organizations and other partners so they can acquire units and preserve rent prices in the long term. Co-led and co-funded by the federal government and other partners, the Fund will mobilize investments and financing from the charitable sector and the private sector to protect and grow affordable housing in Canada.

These loans will help preserve more rental homes and make sure they’re affordable – and they will protect the most vulnerable renters. That means if an affordable rental building goes up for sale, instead of that apartment being sold to a speculator or profiteer, it can go to non-profit organizations, community housing providers, and the middle class. It will mean Canadians can live in the communities they love, with rent prices they can afford. This program will be available later this year, and it will have a direct impact in making the housing market fairer for renters.

This is just one of the things that we are going to be doing in budget 2024 to cut red tape, build more homes, and grow our communities. This week, we announced a $15 billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program, a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, and a $400 million top-up to the Housing Accelerator Fund. That’s hundreds of thousands of new homes fast-tracked. Alongside these measures, we’re getting healthy food on the plates of kids, investing in health care, making life more affordable, and creating good jobs to make sure every generation can get ahead.