The Housing Vulnerability Deadlock: A View from Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT It took 50+ years of federal housing policy and municipal planning to transform Canada into a homeownership society. Over the past three decades, these efforts also coincided with significant periods of public austerity that curtailed social expenditures, especially in terms of social housing. Thus, as homeownership became “locked-in” as the dominant form of tenure, housing vulnerability became further entrenched. From the 1990s until the present day, government action to end housing vulnerability has remained at an impasse. We call this development pathway the housing vulnerability deadlock to draw attention to the interplay of economic and political mechanisms that have impeded government action. In this article, we describe the mechanisms constituting this deadlock and reflect on the prospects of breaking out of it.