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 $82 billion by March 2028 to help more Canadians, including seniors, find a place to call home.

Through the National Housing Co-Investment 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 providing provinces and territories over $15.2 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.

If pressed on Homelessness:

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

This includes an investment of $562 million for Reaching Home over two years, announced in Budget 2022 and starting in April 2024, to support communities in their vital work to prevent and reduce homelessness.

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, $82+ 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 will help reduce the number of seniors in housing need through the $13.2 billion National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF). The Fund has commitments in place to create 6,745 new affordable housing units and repair 43,989 existing housing units for seniors, and will support much-needed renovations, including improved accessibility, to allow seniors to age in place.

Budget 2022 proposed to advance $2.9 billion in funding, on a cash basis, under the NHCF, so that all remaining funds will be spent by 2025-26. This will accelerate the creation of up to 4,300 new units and the repair of up to 17,800 units for the Canadians who need them most.

The Government has announced new bilateral agreements with 13 provincial and territorial partners, with total signed agreements representing over $15.2 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.

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 2023, 1,342 affordable housing units for seniors have been created under the RHI. While initially a $2.5 billion initiative, Budget 2022 provided an additional $1.5 billion over two years, starting in 2022-23, to extend the RHI. This new funding is expected to create at least 6,000 new affordable housing units, with at least 25 per cent of funding going towards women-focused housing projects.

Budget 2022 also proposed $4 billion to launch a new Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) that will help create 100,000 new housing units by accelerating the planning and delivery of housing, as well as $4.3 billion over seven years towards improving and expanding Indigenous housing in Canada.

Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy

The Government of Canada has invested nearly $4 billion over nine years to address homelessness through Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy. This includes an investment of $562.2 million over two years, beginning in 2024-25, announced in Budget 2022. This funding, which maintains the funding levels from 2023-24, is aimed at providing longer term certainty for the community organizations doing vitally important work across the country and to ensure they have the support they need to continue to prevent and address homelessness, as well as continue to make progress toward the Government’s goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2030.

In addition, in Budget 2022, the Government proposed $18.1 million over three years, beginning in 2022-23, to conduct research to identify what further measures are required to eliminate chronic homelessness and $62.2 million over three years, beginning in 2024-25, to launch a new Veteran Homelessness Program that will provide services and rent supplements to veterans experiencing homelessness in partnership with community organizations.

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.

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