On March 11, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance tabled its final pre-budget report, which summarizes the appearances of over 92 presenting organizations and 175 written submissions from groups that were not invited to appear.

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) this week welcomed a report issued by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that recommends Canada “develop and effectively implement a human-rights based national strategy on housing.”  

The RQOQ (Quebec’s non-profit housing network) took advantage of a meeting with the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, to ask him some key housing and homelessness questions. With this portfolio, Minister Duclos is responsible for housing and the CMHC.

On February 18, CHRA Executive Director Jeff Morrison appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance to present CHRA’s pre-budget recommendations.

Co-organized by the CHRA, Carleton University, and the Tyee Solutions Society, the all-day Actions for Housing Now working session held on the Carleton campus brought together some 60 people from the around the broad housing sector — providers and tenants, social and market housing, financial institutions and green building experts — as well as unions, criminal justice reformers, aboriginal interests, philanthropic foundations and those serving the most vulnerable.

Access to the middle class and elimination of homelessness depend on adequate affordable housing supply. A coalition of seven housing sector leaders releases a joint statement, Affordable housing: a foundation for social inclusion in anticipation of the federal budget.

On January 26, CHRA and its housing partners, CHF Canada and CAEH, co-sponsored The Disappearing Middle Class, a Hill Times policy event in Ottawa.

Last week, CHRA was hard at work conveying Housing for All messages to those in the highest offices, including participation in Minister of Finance Bill Morneau’s Pre-Budget Consultation in Toronto and an in depth meeting with Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos in Ottawa.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, it’s my pleasure to announce the appointment of Jeff Morrison as CHRA’s new Executive Director. Jeff leaves his position of Associate Director, Federal Affairs with Glaxo SmithKline, and before then, served as Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs with the Canadian Pharmacists Association for five years. In this role, he was responsible for advocacy, stakeholder relations, policy development, media relations, and external communication for the association. Jeff has held many other senior positions in the nonprofit world, including President of the Association of Canadian Engineering Companies and Director of Government Relations and Director of Environment for the Canadian Construction Association.

CHRA calls on Canadians to push for housing investments via Finance’s online pre-budget consultation.
On the heels of an Employment and Social Development Canada study release stating that 2,250 veterans are homeless, the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association is calling on the federal government to commit to comprehensively tackling Canada’s homelessness and housing crisis in its next federal budget.