Current Advocacy Campaigns

Housing Canada: A Sovereign Plan to Protect Canadians and Build a Resilient Housing System

In response to the trade war launched by the Trump administration, a coalition of leading Canadian organizations from across the housing system has come together to propose a policy plan to build resiliency, safeguard the housing industry, and protect Canadians.

The trade war will have a direct, negative impact on the Canadian housing market at a time when millions of Canadians are already struggling to find a safe and affordable place to call home. It will strain Canada's economy and labour market, and worsen unaffordability, which will further drive housing insecurity and more Canadians into homelessness.

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), Habitat for Humanity Canada, and the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) recognize these challenges and, together, are acting swiftly in response.

Housing Canada: A Sovereign Plan to Protect Canadians and Build a Resilient Housing System is a plan that identifies 10 actionable pillars aimed at responding to the challenges at hand:

  1. Create an immediate housing safety net for Canadians.
  2. Protect renters from falling into homelessness.
  3. Double the share of community housing.
  4. Ensure access to the land and infrastructure required to build communities.
  5. Create resilient housing material supply chains.
  6. Develop a housing skills agenda for Canada.
  7. Reform taxes to facilitate homebuilding.
  8. Streamline permissions to facilitate homebuilding.
  9. Accelerate innovation to build faster, less expensive and better homes.
  10. Rapidly expand Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing.

Canada Community Housing Growth Fund

Doubling the share of non-market community housing will require a strong and robust sector of community housing providers. Our proposed Canada Community Housing Growth Fund (CCHGF) is a sector-led model that strengthens and grows the community housing sector by investing in training, capacity-building, knowledge transfer, and professionalization to get greater number of non-profits development-ready and prepared for growth.

The CCHGF model provides funding directly to community based organizations, with priority to Indigenous-led and Black-led organizations, through a collaborative co-development process that leverages the organizational capacity of community based fund managers to develop adaptable and culturally sensitive programming.

We thank our partners in this proposed initiative: The National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc. (NICHI), The Community Housing Transformation Centre, and The Black Communities Technical Housing Resource Centre.

Learn more.

Blueprint for Housing

Over the past several years, Canada has witnessed significant change in community housing, including a significant reengagement of the federal government.  Given this change, in mid 2021, CHRA announced the launch of a "Blueprint for Housing" initiative.

CHRA’s Blueprint for Housing is an extensive policy document that will help inform CHRA’s advocacy efforts over the coming decade as we work towards our goal of ensuring that all who live in Canada have access to safe, affordable, appropriate housing.

Informed by an extensive consultation process with CHRA members, housing leaders, and stakeholders, the Blueprint for Housing was born of a sector-wide realization: that existing housing policies and programs are not doing enough to ensure that all who live in Canada have homes that are affordable and meet their needs. The Blueprint outlines the key issues facing Canada’s community housing sector and identifies 27 recommendations to address them.

The Blueprint exercise took place over three phases:

Phase 1: Development of a background document containing key questions (Summer/Fall 2021)
Phase 2:  Engagement with CHRA members and expert stakeholders (Fall 2021/Winter 2022)
Phase 3:  Development of a report presenting proposals (Winter-Summer 2022)

The Blueprint for Housing document was released to the public on September 7, 2022.

Learn more.

For more information on the Blueprint for Housing, contact Kenneth Milner at kenneth@chra-achru.ca.

 

Housing on the Hill Day

Housing on the Hill Day takes place each fall and gives CHRA members the chance to meet with Members of Parliament and hear from key federal decision makers. Housing on the Hill Day is an invaluable opportunity to dialogue with MPs and Cabinet Ministers in order to communicate challenges and priorities of the community housing sector.

Find information on Housing on the Hill Day 2022.

Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy

The pursuit of an urban, rural, and northern (URN) Indigenous housing strategy is a top advocacy objective for CHRA and the CHRA Indigenous Caucus. CHRA's proposal for such a strategy rests on the "For Indigenous, By Indigenous" framework unveiled in 2018, which remains the cornerstone of our vision for an URN Indigenous housing strategy.

To amplify our advocacy efforts, in 2020, the CHRA Indigenous Caucus launched the "For Indigenous, By Indigenous" campaign designed to promote the issue and provide people with a chance to share their views with federal election officials.  Check out the website and make your voice heard on the need for an urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing plan.

Vote Housing

In the lead-up to the 2021 federal election, a group of national housing and homelessness organizations worked together to launch the Vote Housing campaign, designed to promote affordable housing issues and concerns.

 

Get involved! Pledge to vote housing in the next federal election, volunteer, learn about the issues.  Visit www.votehousing.ca to learn more!