The Roots of the Homelessness: Social Housing Programs Cancelled

Before 1993
Before 1993, Vancouver had very few homeless people, compared to American cities because for 25 years, our federal and provincial governments, through Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) and BC Housing & Management Commission (BCHMC or BC Housing) funded the construction of as many as 2000 units of subsidized housing annually in BC, and 20,000 units nationally. The legacy of the funding left Vancouver with unique communities like South False Creek, Strathcona, Grandview Woodlands and Marpole; interesting and lively neighbourhoods that incorporated a range of housing options for people of all economic backgrounds.

Before 1993, there were annual federal and provincial social housing proposal calls. There was a thriving social housing development industry that enabled developers, architects, non-profit groups and city staff to plan ahead, often investing their own time and money into potential housing projects that were short-listed, but not approved in the previous year’s proposal call. Land could be optioned and development-permit processes begun for the next year’s funding allotment.

Before 1993, planning for inclusive neighbourhoods could be undertaken with the assurance that annual housing funding for the neediest individuals in our communities would come from our federal and provincial tax dollars.

Since 1993
Since 1993, the federal government has funded a variety of temporary programs, in reaction to the homelessness crisis caused by cancelling its national housing program. This piecemeal funding for social housing does not allow communities to plan inclusive neighbourhoods that have homes for people of all ages and incomes. Instead, we are in a constant state of reaction. One year, only family housing is approved, the next year, seniors. As the housing funding pie morphs and shrinks, non-profit housing groups are forced to expand their interests in order to survive. In order to survive, non-profit housing groups that are family-based are forced to develop housing for people with mental illness, competing with groups that have serviced that sector.

Canada Follows the American Experience
Beginning in 1983, the Regan Administration stopped funding new construction of social housing and began funding rental supplements for housing in the private market. Very quickly, inner American cities saw huge increases in the numbers of homeless people. Other factors, such as deinstitutionalization, welfare cutbacks and economic recession, contributed to the growth of homelessness, but it is clear that market housing in the 1980s and 1990s was unable to meet the needs of low-income Americans.

As Canada watched, we credited our superior social safety net with preventing similar situations in our cities.

Then in 1993, as so often is the case in Canada, we mirrored the mistakes made in the US ten years earlier. In 1993 the federal government ended its social housing program that had, at its height in the mid 1980s, produced 20,000 units of social housing annually.

The Canadian Government also ended the Canada Assistance Plan. In BC, the decline of new social housing construction occurred simultaneously as cutbacks to welfare and employment insurance were legislated—all the result of the federal government ending the Canada Assistance Plan. With the end of CAP, immediately BC saw a sharp increase in the numbers of people unable to pay market rents.

Look at the numbers of non-market housing units that have been funded in the City of Vancouver from the 1950s. Compare the 1970s and 1980s, when government-funded social housing construction was at its peak, to the 1990s through until now. Is there any wonder why we have such large numbers of homeless people? We stopped investing in social housing.