If you live in Toronto, the GTA or even the vast majority of Ontario these days, it can feel like not one news day goes by that isn’t accompanied by headlines deriding the current “affordable housing crisis”. What is interesting, however, is prevalent as this coverage may be, most of it appears to be focused on remedying the current difficulty of getting more Canadians (especially young people and newcomers) into the home buyers market. While in a vacuum this slant is not bad in and of itself, it is very telling that for so much prevalence in everyday life, so few of the coverage dedicated to the housing affordability crisis speaks little of renters and the challenges specific to them brought forth by the issue (other than when having to continue to pay rent while trying to save up for a monstrous downpayment is focused on, often framed as an insurmountable challenge, which it is, but that’s besides the point). According to the latest government consensus, over 30% of the total population (thus millions of people) in Canada rent. So why doesn't contemporary coverage on the housing crisis focus on the rent side of things more? It may have to do with how renting has been perceived culturally in Canada for decades.

As the Social Innovation Department at Ryerson University noted in a recent report on the state of affordability of rentals in Toronto, renting is often culturally depicted as a sign of someone less responsible/professional/civic than a mortgage processing counterpart, and that this dispraitry is especially pronounced for renters of subsidized and/or public housing:

“The popular belief that individual property ownership is the mark of a person’s character and

worth. Renting is expected to be a temporary state and homeownership is the ultimate goal….This is reflected in tax policies that reduce homeownership costs and not rent, tenant-landlord laws that are designed or altered to give landlords more power to evict tenants, and zoning laws that end up segregating economic groups or exclude rental properties entirely….”.

“(Renters of subsidized housing) Often characterized by fears that the presence of affordable rental housing would increase crime, poverty, and service costs, as well as decrease

property values. Attitudes that unfairly assume that renters are less civic-minded, and care less about their community than homeowners….”.

(https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/social-innovation/Programs/Affordable_Housing_Visual_Systems_Map_Oxford.pdf)

Again, this is not the only reason that people are so set on home ownership, but it’s certainly a contributing factor. I also believe that it’s because of this attitude that renting in Toronto has certainly become the anxiety inducing trap it is for many.

It’s be one thing if the housing affordability crisis was specific to home ownership, as in most Canadians are easily making rent, but it’s the jump to a mortgage that’s ultimately the challenge. This is the case in many older, dense countries, such as France, and many in that situation choose to put their savings in other things like pensions, hedge funds and so forth, knowing full well their rent situation doesn't mean frightening uncertainty. This is not the case here. Rather, the housing affordability crisis runs much deeper, evidenced in the form of modern average rental prices in Toronto being more expensive monthly than most mortgages are in this city and metropolitan area, and yet, in a twisted irony, people who continue to pay these exuberant rents on time are often the first to be told by the bank that they will not be approved for a mortgage because there’s “no proof” they can handle one (despite, again, having at this point thousands extracted from them just to have somewhere to sleep). Even more frightening however is there’s no telling how frequently, or how much, the rent can continue going up, especially in contrast to the median Ontarian income, year after year. It’s common knowledge that stable housing is right up there with food and water (albeit it’s often characterized as merely “shelter” in the original texts) as a vital human need. Is it any wonder then that, at this point in Canada, there are reports of massive increase of Canadians struggling with their mental health, and numerous parts of the country rife with people experiencing addiction, occurring simultaneously? I’m not saying the current housing struggles are a direct causation for these societal issues, but what I am saying is, considering how tantamount home is to feeling connected to one’s area and having a sense of security, I’m certainly not surprised.

I also think this is why so many are after home ownership now especially; it’s never been more apparent that home ownership is the ultimate rent control; a more or less guaranteed set monthly rate for roughly three decades, and truly a privilege in our modern economy. The cultural ideal of somehow being more sophisticated because your payment goes towards this as opposed to renting is the cherry on top. By this logic, I also believe the reason Ontarians reacted so strongly to making sure the proposed rent freezes would be enacted during the beginning of the pandemic-irregardless of their personal employment statuses-was because, for the first time in a long time, people had certainty that they would still have a roof over their head for a lengthy duration no matter what. That sense of security brought in a huge amount of comfort, even while the pandemic turned every other facet of daily life upside down.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I think the silver lining of this current housing crisis, if there is one, is that as Ontarians can collectively right a huge wrong in the history of our province as those interested work to rectify this housing crisis. Since they were first developed in the late 1950s, there has been much stigmatization/indignity targeted towards those struggling and/or living in subsidized housing (be it RGI, Transitional, or Supportive). Yet, because the disparity in prior decades between the average income and the cost of home ownership for Ontarians was much, MUCH less pronounced that it is now (even in Canada’s largest city), it became easier to cast aside these groups of renters, and look down on them as undeserving of having access to one of the most important needs a human being could have. This is why the Dream Team has never advocated for much cheaper or even completely subsidized housing per se. Rather, we’ve spent the last twenty years plus advocating for a housing system that can accommodate everyone’s life situation and one where the tenant’s voice is the most central to how housing is carried out nationally. We aren’t calling for total government control of housing. Rather, our goal is to have housing arranged similar to how food is. Food is still sold/bought in a free-market way in Canada (both in the sense of through restaurants and through grocery stores), however there are also also several safeguards (health codes, regulations against price gouging for example) and additional cheaper places to buy (still healthy) food along with supports like foodbanks.This is because a long time ago the government recognized that food (like housing) may be a commodity in our market, but it’s first and foremost required for humans to live.

Stigmatization like this should have never occured in the first place, but as the old Chinese proverb goes “the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time to plant a tree is now”. I personally am in my mid-twenties, and have essentially heard from the media and popular culture that I’ll never own a home since roughly the end of highschool. And you know what? If we can work towards a housing system that’s better, I’m very much content with that. But what could that better housing system look like?

Like everybody else, I have no idea what the future holds-in this country and beyond-but I do know that, if efforts pay off to have a national situation that’s much more equitable, I want it baked in that housing be viewed as a human right, and on a spectrum whereby everyone is included by proxy of their inherent worth of dignity due to being a fellow human. We at the Dream Team view housing this way, largely because our members know what it’s like to struggle without being able to call a place home and the toll it takes on a person. Our team wants to work towards making a Canada whereby future Canadians look at homelessness the way we in the present day view medieval-era punishments-misguided, inhumane, and something nobody should have to ensure anymore. Personally, I want a housing market that offers options, but also recognizes housing as vital, and that all forms of housing (mortgage, rental, subsidized, etc) are legitimate and not indicative of what type of ‘person’ the occupier of the dwelling is. If the American Dream is an isolated house with a white picket fence, by contrast this to me is “the Canadian Dream”. And if popular culture is right about me and others in my demographic/life situation, then frankly I can take solace in the fact that I can spend the rest of my years fighting for this. To anyone reading this that feels like me, let’s go make our voices heard, for all Canadians.