Dozens of housing groups from across Canada descended on Winnipeg this week for a major conference on the future of social housing and other topics.
The main topic of conversation revolved around the federal government’s plan to remove $1.7 billion that had been earmarked for social housing in Canada.
The money is scheduled to be phased out between now and 2040, according to Jody Ciufo, the executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association.
She says much of the money was used to facilitate the charging of rental fees that matched what a tenant could afford to pay.
“One of the most troubling parts of the loss of federal funding is the fact it disproportionately affects Aboriginal Canadians because of the fact the vast majority of funding for urban Aboriginal portfolios was this rent geared to income.”
Without federal money, she says social agencies may have to start charging a lot more for rent or sell the buildings to private landlords who operate without a social mandate.
Ciufo says while 2040 may sound like a long ways away, the cuts will start to be felt acutely, likely within the next five to 10 years.
After that, she says it might not be much longer until things really start to deteriorate.
“Aboriginal communities generally had shorter agreements (with Ottawa). Some of them were as short as 15 years, 25 years — while many of the other agreements were 50 years in length. So Aboriginal communities will be among the first to feel the problems with the loss of funding.”
Some groups at the conference are planning to try and roll with the cuts, while others swapped ideas on how to alleviate the shortfall.
One agency proposed transferring social housing buildings to not-for-profit units instead.
Experts worry that if rents go up, many tenants will be forced out of their homes and into the street.
If that happens, many may try to cram en masse into rental properties, but officials say that won’t be safe.