Canada

I live and am active in co-op housing in my area.
It's the only proven sustainable solution to affordable housing.
Any city in Canada, the least expensive housing is co-op housing.
There's virtually no discussion of co-ops in the media.

I read an article that said that policies should look at either reducing demand or increasing supply. Almost all policies introduced by our federal government have instead increased demand.

Let's get another million immigrants and build nothing to house them, that will help

Getting a roommate especially does not help if you own your home and you are on ODSP. They claw back 50% of your rental income. It's monstrous. You'd think you could first apply it directly to housing expenses, but no; not only is it applied to your income, but you don't get the benefit of the first thousand dollars being exempt from clawbacks like with all other income. It's like they have specifically designed the system to make it impossible for someone on ODSP to keep their home. And ultimately it costs more to have someone move out of a place they own and into a rental. It's so regressive and backwards. It's a reflection of the institutional and cultural hatred of the poor we seem to be so fucking proud of.

Huh... I wonder what's driving up these prices?

Only way out for me I see in the long term is to live with like tons of roommates and practice my ultra-dense room arrangement skills.

I think the core problem is that any move the government makes to reduce housing costs will piss off everyone whose primary investment is their house.

Correct solution if not for that would be for government to directly build a fuckton of housing.

Incorrect solution would be to reduce immigration. Immigration is good for other reasons. Cutting it off would weaken the country.

What's the BoC's role in this? They must know that increasing rates will lead to landlords passing on the increase to the tenants.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Canada's rental crisis is getting worse, according to a new report that found the average asking price for rent in September was $2,149 — up by more than 11 per cent compared to a year ago.

That's according a data analysis of tens of thousands of new rental listings across the country from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and research firm Urbanation.

One reason for the deceleration in Toronto is that more people are choosing to live with a roommate to cut costs, said Rentals.ca communications director Giacomo Ladas.

"I'm looking at basement suites that are in not the most desirable neighbourhoods of Calgary ... safety concerns, that kind of stuff, that I'm looking at [and thinking] 'oh man, is this what I'm going to have to be basically downgrading to?'"

The Alberta economy is faring better than the rest of Canada, which is drawing tens of thousands of people to the province every month for work and its comparative affordability.

The lack of supply is a major factor elsewhere, too, including in Nova Scotia, where the average asking price for a new apartment hit $2,088 last month, up 15 per cent in the past year.

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