National Housing Strategy not working for lowest-income households in Manitoba

The National Housing Strategy is not creating new housing for the lowest-income households in Manitoba, according to new analysis published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba in collaboration with the Right to Housing Coalition. The Impact of the National  Housing Strategy for Low-Income Renters in Winnipeg and Manitoba by Dr. Shauna MacKinnon looks at housing funded by the federal government’s housing strategy and finds it has provided few units for the lowest-income households.

The National Housing Strategy was launched in 2017 to “…focus on improving housing outcomes for those in greatest need.” Data from the National Housing Strategy shows that 90% of units funded through the NHS in Manitoba between 2017 and March 2024 are located in Winnipeg. Of the 2145 units funded in Winnipeg, only 253 (12%) meet the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) affordability criteria with rents set at less than 30% of the gross income of low-income households,  also known as rent-geared-to-income (RGI).

The report recommendations emphasize that funding programs currently supporting market housing should be redirected toward non-market social housing with rents set at less than 30% of household income.

“If the federal government is to reach its goal of ‘ensuring everyone in Canada has a place to call home’ it will need to redirect future National Housing Strategy investments toward the expansion and maintenance of social housing,” says Dr. MacKinnon.

This report confirms the calls from the Right to Housing Coalition to all levels of government to work collaboratively to ensure that all rental housing developed using government funds is social housing, which is non-market, including both public and non-profit owned and operated housing, renting at RGI rates affordable to the lowest income households.

The Impact of the National  Housing Strategy for Low-Income Renters in Winnipeg and Manitoba is available online.

About the Author

Shauna MacKinnon is Professor and Chair, the Department of Urban and Inner-City Studies and Principal investigator of the Manitoba Research Alliance and the Social Housing and Human Rights project. She is a long-time member of the Right to Housing Coalition and Chair of the Coalition’s federal working group. MacKinnon is a research associate with the CCPA in Manitoba.
About the CCPA Manitoba

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is Canada’s leading progressive research institute. The Manitoba office has been active since 1997.