Progress on the National Housing Strategy - March 2023

Affordable Housing Innovation Fund

September 30, 2016

Phase 1:
$208.3 million over 5 years from
2016/17 to 2020/21

Phase 1: 4,000 affordable housing units created using innovative business approaches and building techniques.

Phase 1: $208.30 million committed to support the creation of 19,100 units, of which 16,572 will be affordable.

For Phase 1, 14,959 units are financial commitments and 4,141 units are currently under construction or built.

August 30, 2022

Phase 2:
$550.8 million over 6 years from
2022/23- 2027/28

Phase 2: at least 10,800 housing units created.

Phase 2: $50.77 million committed to support the creation of 233 units, of which 141 will be affordable.

Rental Construction Financing Initiative

April 20, 2017

$25.75 billion over 11 years from 2017/18 to 2027/28

Construction of more than 71,000 new rental housing units across Canada.

CMHC has committed $14.77 billion in loans to support the creation of 41,501 units. Of the 41,501 units,

• 10,329 are conditional commitments;
• 2,638 are financial commitments;
• 20,801 units are currently under construction;
• 7,733 units are built.

Federal Lands Initiative

February 11, 2019

$202 million over 10 years from 2018/19 to 2027/28

Create 4,000 housing units by transferring surplus federal lands and buildings to housing providers at low or no cost.

CMHC has committed $118.02 million to support the creation of 3,904 units, of which 1,680 will be affordable.

Of the 3,904 units, 975 units are conditional commitments, and 2,929 units are financial commitments.

National Housing Co- Investment Fund

May 2, 2018

$13.17 billion over 10 years from 2018/19 to 2027/28

Create 60,000 new housing units and repair or renew 240,000 housing units

CMHC has committed $6.98 billion to support the creation of 30,217 new units (20,145 affordable) and the repair/renewal of 123,984 units (113,754 affordable).

Of the $6.98 billion, $4.02 billion are loans and $2.96 billion are contributions/forgivable loans.

New Units
Of the 30,217 new units, 5,835 units are conditional commitments, 14,771 units are in progress, and 9,611 units are built. This includes commitments to make 1,123 shelter spaces or transitional housing units available for survivors of gender-based violence, 6,484 housing units for seniors, and 901 units for people with developmental disabilities.

Repair/Renewal Units
Of the 123,984 repair units, 4,708 units are conditional commitments, 85,767 units are in progress, and 33,509 units are repaired/renewed. This includes commitments to repair/renew 302 shelter spaces or transitional housing units for survivors of gender-based violence, and 43.922 senior units.

Rapid Housing Initiative

October 27, 2020

Round 1:
$1 billion over 2 years from 2020/21 to 2021/22.

Round 1: Create over 3,000 affordable housing units

Under Round 1, CMHC has committed $1 billion to support the creation of 4,763 new affordable units. Of the 4,763 affordable housing units committed, of which 2,344 units are built and 2,419 currently under construction.

Of the total units committed in Round 1, 1802 units are for Indigenous peoples, 1380 units are for homeless people or those at risk of being homeless, and 741 units are for seniors.

June 30, 2021

Round 2:
$1.5 billion for 1 year in 2021/22.

Round 2: Create over 4,500
affordable housing units

Under Round 2, CMHC has committed $1.5 billion to support the creation of 5,508 new affordable units.

Of the 5,508 affordable housing units are committed, of which 662 units are built and 4,846 units are currently under construction.

Of the total units committed in Round 2, 2439 units are for Indigenous peoples, 1142 units are for homeless people or those at risk of being homeless, and 559 units are for seniors.

November 10, 2022

Round 3:
$1.5 billion over 2 years from 2022/23 to 2023/24.

Round 3: Create over 4,500 affordable housing units

Under Round 3, CMHC has committed $442.51 millions to support the creation of 1,275 new affordable units.

Funding ($M)

$49

$57

$10

$88

$3

$208

Units/Beds

2,665

7,822

463

8,142

8

19,100

Funding ($M)

$11

$11

Units/Beds

133

133

Funding ($M)

$11

$1

$49

$10

$48

$118

Units/Beds

295

12

2,178

467

952

3,904

Funding ($M)

$197

$437

$3,948

$805

$1,310

$276

$6,973

Units/Beds

3,124

10,249

115,583

8,522

15,186

1,537

154,201

Funding ($M)

$45

$223

$366

$142

$206

$19

$1,002

Units/Beds

300

1,698

1,147

843

692

83

4,763

Funding ($M)

$70

$340

$530

$256

$186

$77

$1,460

Units/Beds

378

1,503

1,650

1,221

507

249

5,508

Funding ($M)

$46

$253

$58

$70

$15

$443

Units/Beds

177

668

242

161

27

1,275

Funding ($M)

$670

$2,200

$6,858

$483

$4,539

$22

$14,772

Units/Beds

2,193

6,879

19,177

2,035

11,130

87

41,501

Federal Community Housing Initiative (FCHI)

April 1, 2018
(Phase I)

$38 million over 2 years from 2017/18 to
2019/20

Funding for community housing providers to support 55,000 community housing units, as well as 13,700 low-income households through 2027-28.

Over $42 million to extend subsidies to 25,706 households was provided during Phase 1 of the program which sunset in 2019-20.

September 1, 2020
(Phase II)

$580.2 million over 8 years from 2020-2021 to 2027/28

Support of 11,000 low-income units, plus an additional 2,700 low-income units, announced in budget 2021, with operating agreements under federal administration through CMHC.

Since 2020-21, $82.99 million in rent assistance was provided to 8,948 low-income households, supporting 41,362 community housing units.

Community Housing Transformation Centre (CHTC) and Sector Transformation Fund (STF)

April 11, 2019 (CHTC)

December 2019 (STF)

$64.2 million over 10 years from 2018/19 to 2027/28

Increase knowledge and technical capacity of the community housing sector to support effective and sustainable business models while continuing to provide affordable housing.

Funding and tools for housing providers to support efficient and effective business models.

Established in June 2019, CHTC is a non-profit organization led by an Executive Director and a Board of Directors.

CHTC delivers the Sector Transformation Fund.

$27.9 million has been provided to the CHTC to setup operations, cover operating and program-eligible costs, and provide funding to 247 STF applications. Project areas of impact include the Environment, Indigenous, Local Projects, Sector Growth, Sectoral Impact, Social Inclusion and Sustainable Business. Many examples can be found on the CHTC website.

Community Based Tenant Initiative (CBTI)

December 2019

$10 million over 4 years from 2019/20 to 2022/23

Funding for local organizations that assist people in housing need to enable participation in housing decision- making.

$10.0 million to support 171 CBTI applications.

One-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit

December 12, 2022

$1.2B over 1 year in 2022/23

Assist up to 1.8 million eligible households.

$393.43 million to support 798,530 applications.

Reaching Home^{Endnote *}

April 1, 2019

$3.1B over 10 years from 2018/19 to 2027/28

Reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by March 2028.

Redesigned federal homelessness program launched on April 1, 2019.

Over 1,200 projects were launched in the first six months of Reaching Home

$215 million in annual funding is expected to be delivered by the end of 2021-22.

Shared Equity Mortgage Provider (SEMP) Fund

July 31, 2019

$100 million over 6 years from 2019/20 to 2024/25

Assist 1,500 first-time homebuyers and assist in the creation of 1,500 new homeownership units

$28.95 million committed to assist in the creation of 1,018 new homeownership units.

First-Time Home Buyer Incentive

September 2, 2019

$1.25 billion over 5 years from 2019/20 to 2023/24

Assist up to 100,000 first-time homebuyers

CMHC has approved 19,438 applications, representing $347.5 million in Shared Equity Mortgages.

Approved Applications (#)

6280

6525

2796

1913

1236

688

Funded Applications (#)

5944

6236

2711

1855

1197

655

Approved Shared Equity Mortgages ($)

$130,829,418

$109,846,279

$44,501,619

$25,368,130

$23,171,988

$13,762,483

Funded Shared Equity Mortgages ($)

$123,516,591

$104,502,564

$42,949,008

$24,546,415

$22,260,432

$12,907,303

National Housing Strategy Act

N/A

The Act recognizes the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right affirmed in international law. The Act requires the federal government to maintain a National Housing Strategy to further housing policy, taking into account key principles of a human rights-based approach to housing, and report to Parliament every three years on the progress towards the Strategy's goals and outcomes.

Tabled in Parliament on April 8, 2019, as part of Bill C-97, and received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019. The NHS Act came into force on July 9, 2019.

National Housing Council

November 22, 2020

The Council, with diverse representation, will further housing policy by providing advice to the responsible Minister on, among other things, the effectiveness of the National Housing Strategy with the aim of improving housing outcomes.

The Council continues to meet quarterly. The Council has a work plan for 2021-2023 including three priority areas:
1) Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Housing,
2) Improving the National Housing Strategy and
3) Urban, Rural and Northern (URN) Indigenous Housing.

Recommendations on Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous housing sent to the Minister in March of 2022. In, January 2023 the Council published its intent to proceed with the first review panel on the Financialization of purpose- built rental housing, and the panel published its terms of reference on March 16.

Federal Housing Advocate

2020

The Federal Housing Advocate is an appointment by the Governor in Council and supported by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Federal Housing Advocate's mandate includes consulting with members of vulnerable groups and working directly with communities affected by systemic housing issues. The Advocate may request that the National Housing Council establish a review panel to hold a hearing to review any systemic housing issue within federal jurisdiction. The Advocate also monitors and reports annually on their findings related to systemic housing issues that they hear about and associated recommendations.

On February 3, 2022, the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion announced the appointment of the new Federal Housing Advocate, Marie-Josée Houle. Read the Honourable Ahmed Hussen's statement.

The Federal Housing Advocate's 2021-2022 Annual Reportsummarizes the Advocate's activities and proposes 6 recommendations to address systemic housing issues. The Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion tabled both the report and his response to the report in Parliament on June 16, 2022.

In September 2022, the Federal Housing Advocate requested that the National Housing Council establish a review panel to review the issue of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing. On December 8, 2022, the Council passed a motion to proceed with the review panel as requested by the Federal Housing Advocate; work is underway.

Solutions Labs

May 21, 2018

$24.5 million from 2018/19 to 2027/28

Support experts and housing stakeholders to incubate and scale potential solutions to housing affordability pressures.

$14.2 million to support 66 solutions labs fostering innovation in the housing sector.

Demonstrations Initiative

May 21, 2018

$12.5 million over 10 years

Support demonstrations of forward-looking technologies, practices and strategies that explore the future of housing in Canada.

$7.2 million to support 45 demonstration projects.

Housing Supply Challenge

October 23, 2020

$300 million over 5 years from 2020/21 to 2024/25

The Housing Supply Challenge (HSC) invites citizens, stakeholders, and experts from across Canada to propose innovative solutions to the barriers that limit the housing supply. The Housing Supply Challenge will result in new ideas and solutions that will help more people find an affordable place to call home.

First round of the Challenge launched in October 2020; 14 projects were funded for a total of $25.4M. The second round of the Challenge launched in June 2021; 14 projects were funded for a total of $38.2M.

The third round of the Challenge launched in February 2022; 33 projects were shortlisted to move onto the next stage of the Challenge. Funding decisions will be announced in November 2023.

The fourth round of the Challenge launched in December 2022 and funding decisions will be announced in March 2024.

Housing Research Scholarship Program

Spring 2018

$3.65 million over 10 years

Funding for postdoctoral fellowships to help build housing expertise in Canada.

$2.16 million in scholarships awarded for 24 postdoctoral fellowships to conduct research in support of the NHS.

CMHC Housing Research Award Program

April 2018

$500,000 over 10 years

Promote and extend world-class housing research.

Awards ceremonies held in November 2018, December 2019, November 2020 and November 2021. The 2022 recipients will be featured in a video, which will be posted to the CMHC Awards program page and to CMHC social media in April 2023.

15 awards and 4 travel bursaries for a total of $220,000.

Collaborative Housing Research Network

July 12, 2018

$13.9 million over 10 years

Canada-wide collaboration of academics and community partners in research to inform housing policy decision- making

$640,000 awarded to 8 Partnership Development Grants ($80,000 each) to help lay the foundation of the Network.

Research Network created by supporting 6 multi-year team grants. Investment for first 5 years is $7.9 million.

NHS Research and Planning Fund

June 18, 2018

$6.6 million over 10 years

Support non-profit housing stakeholders seeking to undertake housing related research.

$3.7 million has been awarded to 30 research proposals.

NHS Housing Needs Data

Fall 2018

$62 million over 10 years

Enhance data collection and analysis, development of new housing surveys and comprehensive databases with social, economic and financial information to produce housing statistics.

2 new surveys created to better understand housing conditions and experiences in Canada, including for those living in social and affordable housing.

• Results from the second Canadian Housing Survey (Statistics Canada)
• Results from the second Social and Affordable Housing Survey – Rental Structures (CMHC)

Creation of foundational documents necessary to initiate a mortgage industry data standards organization in Canada.

Survey of Non-Bank Residential Mortgage Lenders to get a more complete picture of the overall Mortgage Market in Canada.

Progress towards the building on a database of all social housing across Canada.

Progress towards building of a database on residential evictions.

Expert Community on Housing (ECOH)

November 21, 2018

Web-based virtual community of practice for housing experts to address challenges and problems in housing.

Currently hosting over 1,900 members with on-going intake of new members.

National Housing Conference

2018/19

Annual conference to bring industry experts together.

CMHC hosted a national housing conference in 2018/19. Due to COVID, the 2020/21 conference was cancelled and none were held in 2021/22 and 2022/23.

CMHC is planning the next National Housing Conference to take place at the end of 2023/24.

2017

$84M

2018

$405M

2019

$2,642M

2020

$3,412M

2021

$4,109M

2022

$4,044M

2023

$234M

Expenditures ^{Endnote *}

$3,995M

2016/17

$10M

2017/18

$70M

2018/19

$0M

2019/20

$155M

2020/21

$1,206M

2021/22

$1,828M

2022/23

$725M

Canada Community Housing Initiative

$8.6 billion

$656.0 million

$966.0 million

P/T Priorities Funding

$2.2 billion

$603 million

$1.42 billion

Canada Housing Benefit

$4.0 billion

$184.6 million

$367.4 million

Northern Funding^{Endnote *}

$300 million

$149.14 million

N/A

Preservation of Social Housing

TBD

330,000 units

TBD

Expansion of Rent-Assisted Units

TBD

50,000 units

TBD

Repairing Social Housing Units

TBD

60,000 units

TBD

Households Assisted through the CHB

TBD

300,000 units

TBD

Alberta

3,555

35,511

12,425

3,555

507

4,740

507

12,620

British Columbia

5,174

25,123

69,985

6,387

1,483

6,934

1,766

28,967

Manitoba

2,108

17,619

48,219

937

625

5,470

663

22,031

New Brunswick

1,262

6,679

33,375

1,262

52

1,991

52

9,954

Newfoundland and Labrador

854

2,602

21,853

894

75

1,197

75

5,957

Northwest Territories

100

532

2,117

82

67

312

10

602

Nova Scotia

1,591

6,074

17,228

674

106

3,000

111

8,580

Nunavut

244

670

1,239

244

0

325

0

1,625

Ontario

19,660

50,623

243,287

3,123

1,452

26,213

1,452

131,063

Prince Edward Island

144

2,203

8,807

144

0

257

0

448

Quebec

9,544

78,090

0

53,002

0

9,223

0

63,630

Saskatchewan

2,467

12,425

56,892

511

249

3,290

165

9,424

Yukon

81

498

6,100

81

0

108

0

543

Total

46,784

238,649

521,527

70,896

4,616

63,060

4,801

295,444