URBAN ISSUES

Housing affordability
Shaheed Bala
HGEO 100
Neal Montague
April 15th 2021
CONTENTS
• Description and importance of Housing Affordability
• Spatial Distribution of Housing Affordability
• Policy Response
 DESCRIPTION
• Housing affordability broadly refers to the cost of housing services and
shelter – both for renters and owner occupiers relative to a given
individual’s or household’s disposable income. While there is no universal
definition for this term, housing affordability is an easy concept to grasp in
general. Nowadays housing affordability has been one of the major
problems in urban areas around the world which as a result has caused a
high number of homelessness around urban areas.
• When most people think about homelessness, their minds often jump to
the image of someone sleeping and living on the streets but it takes
many forms such as homeless people who temporarily live with either
their friends or family, people who generally live in a shelter or
temporary housing system for a brief stay and people with health issues
or disabilities whom often live in a car parks, train stations or other
location that is not suitable for human habitation.
• Nowadays, most cities around the world are facing major challenges in
providing safe and adequate housing for their people, especially cities
that are growing rapidly and where the affordable housing options are
limited. Even those who earn steady wages are unable to buy or rent
affordable
housing. Rents remain alarmingly high and out of line with incomes
forcing many to pay more than 50% of their income each month on
housing. Some relevant factors determining the outcome include high
population density, the purchasing power of the people, housing options
available.
 IMPORTANCE OF HOUSING
AFFORDABILITY
• Housing affordability has a lot of importance and relevance such as
financial stability, overall better health, overall better well being and
many more positive impacts. The relevance of the housing options
availability and urban space is very important to human geographers,
who engage in determining the relationship between urban space and
humans. They seek to analyze and evaluate the relationship existing
between the distribution of affordable housing options, distance from
the urban areas, and jobs and services within the region.
• Common challenges in housing affordability include: Housing costs
rising disproportionately to household incomes, affordable housing
supply is not meeting demand, scarcity of land for affordable housing,
energy poverty, and demographic changes.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN CANADA
• Housing affordability has been a major issue in Canada. People in households
that spend 30% or more of total household income on shelter expenses are
defined as having a "housing affordability" problem. Shelter expenses include
electricity, oil, gas, coal, wood or other fuels, water and other municipal
services, monthly mortgage payments, property taxes, condominium fees, and
rent.
• Housing affordability problems affect recent immigrants disproportionately,
largely an effect of high housing costs in Toronto and Vancouver where many
new immigrants initially settle. The issue is also rising due the large
population in-migration and solid labor markets. Rental costs have also been
increasing. In some cities, the lack of affordable housing has been thrust into
the spotlight by housing encampments in public parks, which in places like
Toronto and Halifax have been forcibly removed by the police.
• This statistic shows the average household
income to buy an average home. The housing
market in Canada has been rising lately and has
reached up to seven times the average household
income in order to purchase an average. This has
led to many people not been able to afford a
house as a result causing homelessness.
• Housing crisis has been going on for a long time in Canada.
• This statistic shows the percentage of owners and renters spending
30 percent or more of household income on shelter costs in the
years 1996, 2001 and 2006.
• In 2006, 68% of the 12.2 million occupied private dwellings in
Canada were owner-occupied (8.4 million); the remaining 32%
(3.9 million) were rented.
• One in four Canadian households (more than 3 million) spent at
least 30% of their household income on shelter costs.
• The percentage of Canadian households in these circumstances has
remained relatively stable since 1996.
• In 2006, 40% of renters, compared with 18% of owners, had a
housing affordability problem.
• This statistic shows the percentage of
renters and owners spending 30
percent or more of income on shelter
costs in Canada and its provinces in
2006.
• More than one in five owners living in
Ontario and British Columbia had
housing affordability issues.
• More than a third of renter households
in every province faced high shelter
costs; percentages were particularly
high in Nova Scotia (45%), Ontario
(44%) and British Columbia (43%).
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
• The issue of housing affordability in dominant in urban areas because of the
high rise of population. The issue is concentrated in the region where the
tertiary and secondary activities predominate with so many sectors. The
relationship between affordable housing and urban space diffuses as one moves
away from the city since the city centers are associated with less affordable
housing, while its availability increases, as one moves away from the city
because less number of people live away from the cities and there are also less
activities. High housing affordability is a lot concentrated in urban areas.
• The reasons for a lack of affordability vary from city to city, but
commonly include housing costs rising faster than incomes,
supply of houses not keeping up with demand, scarcity of
land, and demographic changes such as population growth,
ageing and changes in household composition.
• In most provinces in Canada, houses are less
affordable in urban areas which makes the issue
concentrated in cities while the issue diffuses as
one moves away from the main cities.
• Renters in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary have
higher odds of affordability problems. Many
factors combine to explain why some renter
households have a higher shelter-cost burden
than others. Rents vary considerably across the
country, and for the most part, the larger the city,
the higher the costs. In the largest cities, just
under a third of renters spent 30% or more of
their household budget on shelter, compared
with just 19% in rural areas. Even after taking
into account income levels and other household
characteristics, Toronto and Calgary renters had
four times the odds of spending 30% or more on
shelter than renters in rural areas.
 POPULATION GROWTH
AFFECTING HOUSING

• Canada is one the countries with high

rate of foreign immigration. Millions are
predicted to immigrate to Canada but
the real question is, where would they
live because the housing market has
been greatly rising in large concentrated
urban areas and a lot of foreign
immigrants decide to live in urban
areas.
• This map statistic shows population
growth projections by province from
2018/19 to 2042/43. This shows the
Canada's population would continue
rising and it would continue affecting
house affordability.
POLICY RESPONSE
• City governments have to define their long-term plans for increasing the
supply of affordable housing, balancing the need to minimize urban sprawl
with the limits of the viability of building denser and taller. They need to
address political considerations that could hold back the development of
new affordable housing, ensure that housing developments have adequate
infrastructure, explore ways to improve the situations of those living in
informal housing, and create a strong regulatory enabling environment for
the private and non-profit sectors.
• To increase the supply of affordable housing, the government is keen to
design policies to maximize profits. The government needs measures
such as municipal housing planning aimed at providing affordable
housing solutions to middle-income earners. However, compliance with
these policies varies from location to location. For example, guidelines
are experiencing strong demands along with core areas in the city center
such as the city center. However, the farther from the city center, the less
attractive the policy becomes. The governments to work closely with
house builders and other stakeholders should ensure people on lower
incomes can make the most of city life.
• Homelessness and housing poverty is a more complex problem involving
multiple levels of government. There are good options out there already
that Ottawa and other cities can adopt, now and with federal and provincial
support, to offset the erosion of affordable housing stock. Ottawa is $22
million short (for 2020-21) of being able to meet its goal of reducing core
housing need by 50% and eliminate chronic homelessness by 2024. That
amount is an insignificant fraction of what the federal government has put
aside so far in emergency benefits programs and tax deferrals.
• Less than 1% of all federal program expenditures are allocated to housing.
And if housing is a basic human need, a basic necessity, a human right,
then we should be putting more resources to addressing it, if everyone from
big city mayors to advocacy groups collectively ran the same message,
federal funding increases would follow.
BASIC POLICY RESPONSE
• Increment of high paying jobs
• Increasing the minimum wage • To make people
High paying to be able to
jobs afford the
• Building more affordable houses houses.

• Increasing minimum wage

Minimum wage would contribute to
affording houses.

Building more • Building more

increases the
affordable access to afford
houses the houses
 • https://
www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_Affordabl
e_Housing_A_Reality_In_Cities_report.pdf
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/
affordable-housing-is-a-big-problem-in-these-cities/
• https://
www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-229-x/2009001/e
nvir/hax-eng.htm#archived
• https://globalnews.ca/news/7740756/home-prices-c
ompared-to-income-across-canada
/

CITATIONS • https://
www.ctvnews.ca/canada/millions-of-people-will-m
ove-to-canada-in-the-next-20-years-but-where-will-
they-live-1.5464205
• https://
policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/our-oppo
rtunity-end-housing-poverty
• https://
www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/mapping-most-