While all groups experienced increased housing vulnerability after the pandemic hit, only people of Asian descent continued to see their situations worsen in 2021 as the US spent trillions trying to soften the impact.
Despite a common belief that councils won’t approve tiny houses and modular and container homes, early findings from a national survey suggest planners are increasingly open to these housing options.
Three bills to go before parliament confirm the Albanese government is restoring the Commonwealth to a leadership role on housing issues. But there are still gaps in its approach.
When land is publicly owned, it can be used to build the kind of housing the market is unwilling, or unable, to build.
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In a housing crisis, publicly owned land should never be sold to private developers and should instead be used to build the kind of housing the market is unwilling and unable to build.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford talks to the media on a construction site in Brampton, Ont., in May 2022. Later in the year, the Ford government justified its adoption of sweeping housing legislation and the opening of parts of the Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt for development, stating that it was needed to address “the housing supply crisis.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Evidence suggests that Ontario neither had a shortage of pre-authorized housing starts to accommodate its growing population, nor did it have a shortage of designated land to build such homes.
A new act in Canada bans non-citizens, non-permanent residents and foreign commercial enterprises from buying Canadian residential properties.
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Since foreign owners only represent a tiny segment of the housing market, it’s unlikely that Canada’s new ban on foreign homebuyers will make homes more affordable for Canadians.
Universities and colleges that seek to grow their student enrolments have an obligation to address student housing.
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Governments and universities have failed to prepare for an increase in housing demand amid planned enrolment growth in higher education and a crisis driven by treating housing as an investment.
Money can’t grow on trees, but it can be recycled.
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Foundations mostly give money away in the form of grants. But there’s also a way for them to make a kind of loan that can stretch their charitable dollars.
By living a simple life that is fully contained in a vehicle, van dwellers are able to head out on a new adventure whenever they choose.
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Build-to-rent developments have been touted as a way to deliver affordable housing on a large scale. But, to date, the sector has not been focused on housing for people on lower incomes.
Residents of Miami’s Little Haiti have been fighting plans for a luxury development for several years.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Miami is often held up as an example of ‘climate gentrification.’ But a closer look finds a bigger driver of flashy new developments in low-income neighborhoods.
The main driver of homelessness in Australia is housing costs – post-COVID rents, house prices and interest rates are all much higher. To house everyone, the housing system needs a major overhaul.
Protestors in Gqeberha, South Africa, demonstrating against gender-based violence.
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Improving access to affordable housing and increasing benefit assistance rates are some sustainable solutions to the chronic cycle of homelessness faced by women fleeing violence.
A homeless man folds his blanket from a night’s rest in an area in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, B.C.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
‘Unlegislating’ poverty demands a new course of action from governments that focuses on the expertise of people living with poverty who understand acutely how public policies fail.
Targets of 50,000 new homes for rent at below-market rates and 1 million homes to improve affordability in general are positive steps, but the budget neglects the need to reform an ailing system.
Today’s low-income housing developments, like this one in St. Louis, are of a much higher quality than those of the past.
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
The concentration of subsidized low-income housing developments isn’t as bad as residents fear: It actually increases property values – at a faster rate than other neighborhoods.
Hurricane damage to affordable housing can leave business owners struggling to find employees.
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Professor; School of Economics, Finance and Property, and Director, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Curtin Research Centre, Curtin University