Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has revealed plans of raising $100 million to help Canadians afford places to live, adding to the billions already available in government funding.
Evan Siddall, CMHC’s president and CEO, said that the aim is to raise the fund quickly – and likely from private sources – because the money pledged by federal and provincial governments over the next decade isn’t enough to make housing affordable for everyone in the country.
Last month, CMHC set the ambitious goal of providing every Canadian with homes that they can afford and that meet their needs by 2030. An estimated 1.6 million Canadian households are considered in “core housing need” – they live in places that are too expensive or aren’t suitable for them.
Siddall admitted that the goal is a moon-shot, but it’s designed to force CMHC and other agencies to achieve more than is already eyed in the 10-year national housing strategy (NHS) that is worth over $40 billion.
"As massive as those investments are by the government of Canada, and the investments similarly that provinces are making, they're not going to be enough," Siddall told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Victoria, where he had just addressed an affordable-housing conference.
CMHC has been at the centre of housing moves that the federal Liberals have made since taking office in late 2015, putting the agency in charge of major aspects of the NHS launched in late 2017.
