CFAA REPORT
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE SECTOR Federal housing issues in the pandemic response BY
JOHN DICKIE, PRESIDENT, CANADIAN FEDERATION OF APARTMENT ASSOCIATIONS
“C
OVID-19 has put new pressures on residents of Canada, and on their housing system. COVID-19 has created an unprecedented situation in terms of both health, housing markets and the economy. New policy gaps have opened or become exacerbated by these changes. The policy responses we had before impact the market differently now. More than ever, it is important to invest rapidly and wisely on effective policy responses to ensure housing stability and affordability through the crisis, and emerge stronger on the other end.”
Those are the opening words of the policy brief submitted to the federal government by the Canadian Housing Policy Roundtable, which is available at https://www.chpr-trpcl.ca. The Roundtable is a group of leading housing actors representing housing associations from across the housing continuum, including community organizations, the private housing sector, researchers and data and policy experts. CFAA is a member, along with the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. The Roundtable is committed to working across sectors to develop shared solutions in order to strengthen Canada’s housing system. As the representative of the for-profit rental sector, CFAA plays 10
FAIR EXCHANGE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
a leading role on the Roundtable. (The Roundtable is the successor group to the National Housing Collaborative, which achieved the inclusion of the Canada Housing Benefit in the National Housing Strategy.) While the Roundtable’s policy brief is not specific to the for-profit rental housing sector, and not what CFAA would write for itself, it is a balanced set of recommendations which would help tenants pay rent arrears and rents, and reduce evictions (which would reduce political pressure for governments to act in ways contrary to the interests of rental housing providers). The plan would also address homelessness, and support rental asset values, while balancing social housing acquisition with acquisition by for-profit rental
