Social housing must be a priority
Reducing poverty requires access to safe, affordable, good quality housing. Housing is not just a basic human need, essential to survival, health, and well-being – it provides a foundation from which we can improve education and employment outcomes, reduce crime, address substance use, improve physical and mental health, and reunite families involved with Child and Family Services.
If adequately invested in, social housing ensures low-income renters have access to safe, affordable, good quality housing over the long term. Social housing is public, non-profit, and co-op owned housing for low-income renters where rents are set at less than 30% of household income, or social assistance housing allowances, in perpetuity. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) considers housing to be affordable if it costs less than 30% of a household’s total income before taxes.
Social housing cannot be used for speculation or to generate wealth. It cannot be owned by private housing providers. Agreements between governments and housing providers limit how the property can be used and provide subsidies tied to the unit to ensure rents are geared to household income or set at social assistance housing allowances for those who are eligible. Social housing is targeted at low-income renters and people experiencing homelessness.
The Facts
- Market rental housing is unaffordable – Manitoba households in the lowest quartile of incomes spend 51% of their income on housing.
- There is a shortage of non-market social housing in Manitoba with over 6,000 households on the waitlist.
- With nowhere else to go more than 1,200 people experience homelessness on any given night in Winnipeg alone. Another 4,000 more are conservatively estimated to be experiencing hidden homelessness.
Since the federal government began to reduce spending on social housing in the early 1990s, the Manitoba government has relied almost exclusively on the private market to produce low-rent housing. It is clear that this 30-year-old experiment has failed. Other sectors are joining the growing consensus among housing advocates that the housing crisis won’t be solved without re-investing in social housing. For example, Scotiabank released a report in 2023 calling on governments across the country to “double the supply of social housing.” The report notes years-long waitlists to access social housing and states that “the moral case to urgently build out Canada’s anemic stock of social housing has never been stronger.” It is time for all levels of government to finally do what is necessary to address the housing crisis for low-income renters.
What can Manitoba do right now?
Manitoba’s Poverty Reduction Strategy must set a goal to ensure all low-income Manitobans can access safe, affordable, good quality housing. To achieve that goal the Strategy must include the following actions:
- Add 5,000 social housing units over 5 years owned by public, non-profit, and co-op housing providers with rents set at social assistance levels or capped at 30% of household income.
According to the housing needs analysis conducted by the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association in 2023, Manitoba requires at least 10,000 additional units of social housing right now to meet the housing needs of the lowest-income Manitobans. This includes people whose income comes from social assistance, disability benefits, or seniors benefits – as well as the working poor.
At least half of new units should be publicly owned and the remainder owned by non-profit, co-operative, and Indigenous-led housing providers. New units should be prioritized for communities, populations, and household sizes with the greatest need. Newly constructed units should be built to the highest efficiency and performance standards.
The Manitoba government will need a plan that explores all opportunities for expanding supply through new construction, the acquisition and redevelopment of existing properties, and the use of public land banking and land trusts. A funding mechanism is required to ensure new supply can operate with rent-geared-to-income rents for as long as it is needed.
- Preserve the existing supply of social housing by investing $750M in capital repairs and maintenance over 5 years and by ensuring no social housing units are lost due to a lack of operating subsidies.
New social housing supply will not help reduce poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness if we don’t prevent the loss of existing units. There are social housing units in Manitoba that sit vacant or have been demolished because of inadequate investment in capital repairs and maintenance. Publicly owned units have been sold to the private sector and no longer offer affordable rents. Non-profit social housing providers have had to increase rents or sell their properties to the private sector when government subsidies were not renewed or replaced after they expired.
The Manitoba government must prevent future losses to ensure new social housing supply results in a net gain. This requires: a $1.5B (over 10 years) capital maintenance fund to bring existing buildings up to standard; retaining ownership of public housing assets; legislation to prevent the sale of non-profit owned social housing that has received government funds; and a new funding mechanism to sustain rent-geared-to-income rents and the operation of social housing when subsidy agreements expire.
- Increase and stabilize funding to ensure all social housing tenants have access to support workers with a minimum ratio of 1 worker per 100 units.
People living with low incomes face barriers accessing physical and mental health care, food, transportation, childcare, education, training, and employment. Poverty also increases the risk of gender-based violence, physical and mental illness, addiction, and involvement with the child welfare and justice systems. These experiences can threaten tenancies and trap people in poverty.
Many organizations in Manitoba help low-income households stabilize their tenancies by connecting them to resources for landlord-tenant mediation, basic needs, hoarding, budgeting, and pest management. They also help households achieve other goals and escape poverty by connecting them to resources related to family reunification, newcomer settlement, reintegration from incarceration, Indigenous cultural practices, health, trauma, mental health, substance use, childcare, education, job training, and employment.
The Manitoba government can help prevent evictions and homelessness, and reduce poverty by increasing and stabilizing funding to expand proven models for delivering supports to social housing tenants. This includes funding for resource centres located onsite or nearby, funding to operate transitional and permanent supportive housing, and funding for mobile support workers that can meet tenants where they are at.
- Enhance security of tenure by limiting exemptions to rent regulations, limiting above-guideline rent increases, disallowing rent discounts, enhancing compensation for no-fault evictions, and ensuring evictions occur as a last resort.
Manitoba’s Residential Tenancies Act prevents the loss of housing from unforeseen and unreasonable rent increases by establishing a guideline that limits annual rent increases. Unfortunately, rent regulations do not cover all buildings. Units rented at $1,615 a month or higher are exempt. Units in buildings first occupied after 2005 are also exempt for 20 years. The law also permits landlords to seek rent increases above the annual guideline if they can establish operating cost increases or capital costs. Unlike jurisdictions like Ontario, there are no limits to the increase that can be granted and few limits on what expenses can be claimed. Manitoba’s amortization period is also much shorter, resulting in higher rent increases. Landlords can unfairly increase profit margins through this process; after the expenses have been fully paid by tenants through higher rents, the rents do not go back down. The loss of low-rent units in the private market is largely the result of rent increases, though conversions to other uses and demolitions play a part.
Another issue that threatens affordability is the ability for landlords to remove, with little notice, rent discounts tenants receive when there is insufficient demand to charge legal rents. Renters can be forced to find more affordable housing, placing them at risk of homelessness, and increasing the demand for rent-geared-to-income housing.
Investment in social housing must be paired with strengthened rent regulations and tenant protections that ensure evictions occur as a last resort and that tenants receive adequate compensation for no-fault evictions. This will help ensure that Manitoba renters, regardless of the type of housing in which they live, have stable, secure homes.
- Support and partner with social enterprises to provide people facing barriers to employment with training and employment in the construction and maintenance of social housing.Public investment in social housing stimulates the economy. The construction, maintenance, renovation, and retrofitting of social housing offers opportunities for training, apprenticeship, and long-term employment. The Manitoba government can partner with construction-based social enterprises that ensure some of these opportunities are given to low-income people with barriers to accessing the workforce. This approach can deepen Manitoba’s pool of skilled workers, which are desperately needed to fill the growing labour shortage within the construction industry – a shortage that is fuelling the affordable housing crisis across the country.
Partnering with social enterprises can generate a greater return on public investments in the construction and maintenance of social housing. When previously unemployed workers become attached to the labour market their wages help fuel the economy. This model generates new tax revenues while reducing poverty and decreases associated costs related to social assistance, child welfare, health care, and incarceration.
The Manitoba government can help maximize these outcomes by expanding social procurement practices within Manitoba Housing, enhancing funding for training within social enterprises, and implementing a social enterprise strategy to support sector development and expansion.
Manitoba’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Needs a Comprehensive Approach
The causes and consequences of poverty are complex and multifaceted. Governments must respond with a comprehensive approach that coordinates multiple policy and program interventions across government departments. Housing is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to reducing poverty. It is not only foundational, but has been recognized by Canada as a basic human right. Actions are also needed in areas such as education, food security, mental health, child care, transportation, child welfare, and income security. For example, Right to Housing supports Make Poverty History Manitoba’s call for a Liveable Basic Benefit as part of a comprehensive poverty reduction plan for Manitoba.
Background
The actions outlined above are rooted in Right to Housing’s social housing action plan for Manitoba which was released in October 2023. The plan is based on decades of research and consultation. Its 5 pillars have been endorsed by more than 90 organizations.
The Right to Housing coalition is a group of individuals and organizations concerned about homelessness and housing insecurity experienced by low-income renters in Manitoba. The coalition calls on all levels of government to prioritize investments in social housing to ensure all low-income renters in Manitoba can access a home that is affordable, safe, secure, and culturally appropriate.
For more information contact: Kirsten Bernas, Chair, Provincial Working Group, Right to Housing Coalition – provincial@righttohousing.ca