The committee met to study homelessness in Canada and housing starts. Appearing were Michelle Boileau, Mayor of Timmins, representing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities; Taylor Soroka, Co-Founder of the Jasper Place Wellness Centre; Eric Edström, Public and Media Affairs Officer of the Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec; Carolyn Whitzman, Senior Housing Researcher at the University of Toronto School of Cities, appearing as an individual; and Tony Irwin, President and CEO of Rental Housing Canada.
Mayor Boileau stated that municipalities are on the front line of a growing homelessness crisis, with shelters under pressure and encampments multiplying. She urged the federal government to maintain and expand the Reaching Home program, making it permanent with predictable, long-term funding, and to close an annual funding gap of approximately $3.5 billion identified by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. She also called for operating funding alongside capital funding for supportive housing, and for prevention measures like rent supplements and portable housing benefits.
Taylor Soroka argued that homelessness is complex, not complicated, and that collapsing diverse human experiences into a single category obscures the need for tailored solutions. She emphasized that Housing First and supportive housing work but are being outpaced, citing a 512-day average wait for supportive housing in Edmonton. She recommended funding local organizations directly for community-based solutions, and described her healing house model—12 self-contained units on a single lot—as a durable infrastructure investment that costs $140 per day and achieves a 76% reduction in health care utilization.
Eric Edström stressed the need for greater flexibility, predictability, and increased funding for the Reaching Home program, with announcements made well in advance to stabilize organizations. He argued that shelters are a last line of defence, not a cause of homelessness, and that prevention is a social and economic investment. He disagreed with a narrow focus on affordable housing, calling for a return to clear definitions of social housing, and noted that Quebec’s holistic approach has seen a slower rise in homelessness since the pandemic compared to the rest of Canada.
Carolyn Whitzman recommended that the next national housing strategy measure housing completions, not starts, and adopt one definition of affordable housing based on area median income. She proposed a target of 200,000 new or acquired affordable non-market homes per year, with half deeply affordable, toward a goal of 20% non-market housing stock. She criticized past federal programs for financing mostly market housing with poor outcomes, and called for clear federal targets and goals, such as ending homelessness by a set date, with flexibility for provinces and municipalities in delivery.
Tony Irwin stated that purpose-built rental housing must remain a core part of the federal housing agenda, and that project viability should be at the centre of policy. He supported federal measures like GST relief, the apartment construction loan program, and Build Canada Homes, but noted that housing starts data can be misleading because it may not reflect real construction activity. He emphasized that Build Canada Homes should focus on non-market housing while CMHC remains a key partner for private-market rental, and that practical refinements are needed to turn policy momentum into completed homes.
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