Housing Subsidies And Housing Policy

As part of a series of volumes on reforming Canadian social policy, this volume offers a compilation of essays discussing various aspects of Canadian housing policy. The essays examine the potential role of federal social housing policy within a major reform of Canada's social security system; the issue of affordable housing at an affordable social cost, including the role of nonprofit social housing, municipal zoning, and secondary suites; lessons to be learned from Ontario's housing policy regarding rent controls, housing subsidies, and private sector housing development; the concept of urban villages; and the finding of common ground among the various interest groups within the housing sector.

Housing assistance in Canada generally consists of subsidies designed to encourage the construction of new, affordable housing. There is interest however, in complementing supply-side subsidies with assistance in the form of a housing allowance for certain households. This research report describes various options for a Canadian housing allowance program, and discusses how to best design, implement and operate such a program.

Outside the United States, the idea of a consumer housing subsidy is a highly developed concept. Housing allowances, shelter allowances, rent allowances - or rent rebates as they are called - have been paid out on a larger scale for longer periods of time on an entitlement basis, with a much greater variety of rationales than in the United States. As the United States moves ahead with its demonstration program, it is timely to examine and evaluate foreign experiences with the consumer housing approach.E. Jay Howenstine addresses common questions that have puzzled many policymakers: How do consumer housing subsidies work? For tenants? Homeowners? Builders? And government officials? Gathered here is the definitive experience of the countries that have employed them. From Australia to the United Kingdom, here is the reality gleaned from a dozen countries and brought to bear on the United States. Both the virtues and the limitations of the approach are presented in detail for everyone interested in housing.This study is divided into three major parts. First, Howenstine reviews the historical background and analyzes housing allowance strategies that foreign governments have adopted. A second part examines in detail the major principles and elements with which governments have fashioned their systems. The third part examines the impact of housing allowance systems and weighs them in the light of the original objectives. Conclusions are also drawn about foreign experiences: Should financial assistance to low-income families be in the form of consumer housing subsidies or producer housing subsidies, or some synthesis of the two systems? Should the housing allowance be maintained as a separate housing policy, or should it be integrated into a general income maintenance policy? This book addresses an increasingly prominent portion of the housing market.

Some social housing was developed as a result of the 1949 National Housing Act (NHA) amendments but this program remained marginalized for many years as government policy favoured shelter provision by private entrepreneurs. While the 1973 amendments to the NHA set the stage for a vigorous "comprehensive" housing policy, these measures were short-lived. In 1978 federal termination of land banking and transfer of financial responsibilities for housing to the provinces encouraged a rapid contraction of the growth of social housing, contributing to mounting homelessness in the 1980s. Bacher's analysis is a fundamental departure from explanations of the policies of the Canadian federal state by both liberal and Marxist scholars. While accepting their notion of the "hegemonic" role of the ideologically rigid Department of Finance, he stresses that such orthodoxy was not shared throughout influential sections of the Canadian civil service. Many critical policy shapers chafed under the department's narrow constraints and were instrumental in effecting policy changes which enabled more socially responsive housing programs to develop.

This report and the corresponding guidelines are the outcome of a two-year project carried out by a group of specialists, whose objective was to take stock of existing work in the field of social housing for vulnerable groups. It complements the report on access to social rights in Europe (2002, ISBN 9789287149855) and is an integral part of the Council of Europe's Social Cohesion Strategy. Addressed to policy makers at national and local levels, service organisations and users, this work provides examples and guidelines on designing and implementing effective housing policies for vulnerable social groups.

Social housing - public, non-profit, or co-operative - was once a part of Canada's urban success story. After years of neglect and many calls for affordable homes and solutions to homelessness, housing is once again an important issue. In Still Renovating, Greg Suttor tells the story of the rise and fall of Canadian social housing policy. Focusing on the main turning points through the past seven decades, and the forces that shaped policy, this volume makes new use of archival sources and interviews, pays particular attention to institutional momentum, and describes key housing programs. The analysis looks at political change, social policy trends, housing market conditions, and game-changing decisions that altered the approaches of Canadian governments, their provincial partners, and the local agencies they supported. Reinterpreting accounts written in the social housing heyday, Suttor argues that the 1970s shift from low-income public housing to community-based non-profits and co-ops was not the most significant change, highlighting instead the tenfold expansion of activity in the 1960s and the collapse of social housing as a policy priority in the 1990s. As housing and neighbourhood issues continue to flare up in municipal, provincial, and national politics, Still Renovating is a valuable resource on Canada’s distinctive legacy in affordable housing.