Question Period Note: Helping Seniors Access Affordable Housing

How is the Government helping seniors access affordable housing?

• Helping seniors to access affordable housing is an important priority for the Government of Canada.
• The National Housing Strategy prioritizes support for the most vulnerable people in society, including seniors. The Government is currently on track to deliver over $115 billion by March 2028 to help more Canadians, including seniors, find a place to call home.
• Through the Affordable Housing Fund and the Rapid Housing Initiative, the Government is supporting the development of new affordable housing units and the repair and renewal of existing units to support vulnerable Canadians, including seniors.
• The Government is partnering with provinces and territories to invest over $15.4 billion in joint funding over 10 years, to protect, renew and expand community housing and support provincial priorities related to housing repair, construction and affordability.

• In addition, Budget 2022 doubled the qualifying expense limit of the Home Accessibility Tax Credit to $20,000, which now provides a tax credit of up to $3,000 for accessibility renovations or alterations.

A) Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada’s Housing Plan

Canada’s Housing Plan is the Government of Canada’s ambitious blueprint to tackle the housing crisis and make housing more attainable and affordable. Supported by Budget 2024, the Plan charts a path to help ensure all Canadians have a place to call home by:

• Building more homes by bringing down the costs of homebuilding, helping cities make it easier to build homes at a faster pace, changing the way Canadian homebuilders manufacture homes and growing the workforce to get the job done.
• Making it easier to own or rent a home by ensuring that every renter or homeowner has a home that suits their needs and the stability to retain it.
• Helping Canadians who cannot afford a home by building more affordable housing for students, seniors, persons with disabilities and equity-deserving communities, and by eliminating chronic homelessness in Canada.

A number of initiatives within Canada’s Housing Plan will help seniors access affordable housing. This includes:

• Program changes to enable seniors housing projects to access the $55 billion Apartment Construction Loan Program
• Removing the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) from seniors housing

Additional programs, initiatives, and reforms in Canada’s Housing Plan, such as the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), are making critical improvements to the housing system at large as well as increasing the supply of housing from coast to coast to coast. Thanks to investments from Budget 2024, HAF is now a $4.4 billion fund. The Government of Canada has already signed 178 agreements with municipalities to effect these changes. Overall, HAF will fast-track the planning and delivery of 112,000 new housing units over the next three years. These system changes will help increase the supply of affordable seniors housing.

B) National Housing Strategy

In November 2017, the Government launched Canada’s first ever National Housing Strategy (NHS). Grounded in the principles of inclusion, accountability, participation, and non-discrimination, the NHS is prioritizing housing investment for those most in need, including seniors. This 10-year, $115+ billion plan will involve collaboration across federal, provincial, territorial governments and will seek to align housing programs with public investment in health care, transit, and cultural and recreation infrastructure. It focusses on meeting the needs of vulnerable populations including seniors. The Government has set goals to reduce or eliminate housing need for 530,000 households.

The NHS is helping reduce the number of seniors in housing need through the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF), among other programs. The Fund has commitments in place to create 8,379 new affordable housing units and repair 41,331 existing housing units for seniors, and will support much-needed renovations, including improved accessibility, to allow seniors to age in place.

Budget 2024 announced a top-up of $1 billion to the AHF, in addition to the 2023 Fall Economic Statement’s top-up of $1 billion. These investments have increased the AHF’s funding to over $15 billion.

The Government has signed bilateral agreements with all 13 provincial and territorial partners, with total signed agreements representing over $15.4 billion in joint funding over 10 years, to protect, renew and expand community housing and support provincial priorities related to housing repair, construction and affordability.

Low-income seniors are also benefitting from the Canada Housing Benefit (CHB), which is
cost-matched and administered by provinces and territories and provides funding directly to households in need to improve their housing affordability. Over $1 billion in federal, provincial, and territorial funding has been committed as of March 31, 2024.

Under the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), a $4 billion initiative, 12,000 new affordable housing units will be created to ensure that more affordable housing can be built quickly. As of
June 2024, 2,247 affordable housing units for seniors have been created under the RHI. To date, CMHC has committed $3.83 billion to support the creation of 15,896 new affordable units under the RHI.

C) Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy

Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy was launched in April 2019 and supports the goals of Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada’s Housing Plan and the National Housing Strategy – to support the needs of the most vulnerable Canadians and to improve access to safe, stable and affordable housing. The program supports the prevention and reduction of homelessness, including chronic homelessness. Since its launch, the Government has invested $4 billion over nine years to address homelessness, through Reaching Home.

To date, Reaching Home’s regional funding streams have supported over 1,800 projects where seniors were one of the targeted groups.

In addition, Budget 2024 announced an additional $1 billion over four years, starting in 2024-25, to stabilize funding under Reaching Home. Of this investment, $50 million will focus on accelerating community-level reductions in homelessness. The Budget also announced $250 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to address the urgent issue of encampments and unsheltered homelessness. This initiative envisions working with provinces and territories to cost-match federal investments, leveraging up to a total of $500 million.

D) Tax Credits

To support seniors living safely at home, Budget 2022 doubled the qualifying expense limit of the Home Accessibility Tax Credit to $20,000, which now provides a tax credit of up to $3,000 for accessibility renovations or alterations. Further, to support families in multigenerational homes, Budget 2022 introduced a Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit, which would provide up to $7,500 in support for constructing a secondary suite for a senior or an adult with a disability.

To further support those struggling with housing costs, Budget 2022 proposed to provide $475 million in 2022-23 to provide a one-time $500 payment to those facing housing affordability challenges, with the details and delivery method to be announced at a later date. This payment, which helped low-income renters with the cost of renting, was delivered to eligible recipients in 2023.

If pressed on Homelessness:

• The Government of Canada has invested $4 billion over nine years to address homelessness, through Reaching Home.

• Furthermore, Budget 2024 announced an additional $1 billion over four years, starting in 2024-25, to stabilize funding under Reaching Home. Of this investment, $50 million will focus on accelerating community-level reductions in homelessness.

• The Budget also announced $250 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to address the urgent issue of encampments and unsheltered homelessness. This initiative envisions working with provinces and territories to cost-match federal investments, leveraging up to a total of $500 million.

• To date, Reaching Home has supported over 1,800 projects where seniors were one of the targeted groups.