Rental Crisis in Canada.

[CITIZEN_2015]

People are genuinely suffering from the current rental crisis in Canada. Single mothers with kids are living in sub -standard hazardous moldy small basement apartments with cockroaches all over the kitchen, bath and inside microwaves. People renting beds sleeping next to each other in a shared bedroom with no privacy. Many looking for affordable places to rent which no longer exist or is not affordable anymore. People on social programs or students unable to rent even a single room. One citizen whose job is building homes for other t live as a construction worker is homeless himself and lives in a van.

One needs to have a $60,000 annual salary to rent a room in most Canadian cities and 15 million Canadians are below that level of income. And this is one of the richest countries in the world. The governments created this crisis by adopting wrong policies over years.  

I watched a CBC news coverage entitled Canada's Rental Crisis - Looking for affordable housing and I was disturbed by it to see the conditions our fellow citizens who are the citizens of one of the richest countries in the world live and the pain and sufferings and the hazardous health conditions they have to live under. So sad. Do not watch if you are sensitive.

We must not let our governments to get away with this. Their citizens are suffering. We need to put pressure on governments to build significantly more affordable housing especially in hot areas such as Vancouver , Toronto and Southern Ontario. They have to adopt more reasonable immigration numbers till this crisis is dealt with.  Bring in new laws to protect tenants and punish landlords for not providing a safe living condition. The existing laws are obviously not going far enough to protect our citizens as shown in the video above.

[herbie]

2 hours ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

We must not let our governments to get away with this. Their citizens are suffering. We need to put pressure on governments to build significantly more affordable housing especially in hot areas such as Vancouver , Toronto and Southern Ontario.

So you're all for communism? Soviet blockhouses?

I'd be all for it if they were nicer housing anywhere but the places mentioned.
Then again, I'm all for nation building when everyone else only wants destroying.

[myata]

Your great representative- "employees" with $185K salary (that would be bare minimum) will take a great care of that. Beginning with automatic annual rise of course.

We get only what we ordered with our attention, engagement will to design and implement any and all necessary changes, always. Or, passivity, laziness, boredom and complacency. We will receive it all, with a guarantee of delivery.

[CdnFox]

12 hours ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

We need to put pressure on governments to build significantly more affordable housing

That is the LAST thing we need. I posted on another thread the other day how we would start seeing calls for this and why it would be a disaster.

The problem exists because the gov'ts have over interfered with the natural market forces and at this point things are in such a way that not only is it seriously against the developer's interests to build housing in advance of need (which is what we want, houses in place before people show up so we have a small surplus) but also the bureaucracy will not let them build enough even if it was worth it.

What we need is strong leadership pulling the provinces and the feds togethter and treating htis like a crisis and imposing the necessary changes together. THere are many, this isn't a simple thing, and they all need to be addressed to fix this.

Building gov't 'affordable' homes will make the problem much worse. Sure gov'ts can still build a few places like that for the very poor but there is no way they can build enough to solve this problem or come close and trying to will actually reduce the market's effort to build so you'll just be worse off.

We are 1 million homes short of where we need to be in order for housing prices to stabilize and become more affordable. And we're still not building enough - so we need to increase what we're building AND THEN add 1 million units.  That is NOT going to happen with gov'ts building "affordable" housing.

[CITIZEN_2015]

12 hours ago, herbie said:

So you're all for communism? Soviet blockhouses?

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

All my life I have been against communism and religious fanatism, however, I do not accept wide gap between citizens that some citizens have so much money living in luxury and some other equal citizens having to live in poverty living in health hazardous conditions with cockroaches running around and the food exposed while kids are in those homes. This is not acceptable. Not in Canada.

Tax the rich more (those earning over $100,000) and profitable corporations more and build millions of affordable houses for citizens who can rent at reasonable price. If this is communism , so be it.

Edited February 25, 2023 by CITIZEN_2015

[myata]

This can be a real killer for the great Canadian smiling beavertale story. Outrageously expensive bureaucracy, under par healthcare over-bureaucratized government services but look! you can have your own place. Not anymore. The end of the tale. Just under par, second rate and higher prices less left. And not in a foggy future, well on the way there.

[Army Guy]

18 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

All my life I have been against communism and religious fanatism, however, I do not accept wide gap between citizens that some citizens have so much money living in luxury and some other equal citizens having to live in poverty living in health hazardous conditions with cockroaches running around and the food exposed while kids are in those homes. This is not acceptable. Not in Canada.

Tax the rich more (those earning over $100,000) and profitable corporations more and build millions of affordable houses for citizens who can rent at reasonable price. If this is communism , so be it.

It means he's to good for the housing your suggesting, he wants more bells and whistles perhaps a doorman with room service...he gloss over the fact that anything including a cardboard box would be better than what or where they are living right now...he has certain liberal standards and he expects , no he demands better...

[CdnFox]

3 minutes ago, myata said:

This can be a real killer for the great Canadian smiling beavertale story. Outrageously expensive bureaucracy, under par healthcare over-bureaucratized government services but look! you can have your own place. Not anymore. The end of the tale. Just under par, second rate and higher prices less left. And not in a foggy future, well on the way there.

Well we are dangerously close to something very bad that's true.  High immigration beyond our ability to integrate people and which tends to be pushed into tight communities, no housing for anyone to live in, poor medical access, severe inflation driving prices up to the point where it's hard to get food... that's a recipe for disaster. And for sure the day is coming where work is harder to find, and then you get the kind of explosive unrest we've seen in European countries

[Perspektiv]

12 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Tax the rich more

This just drives them out in droves. Its not a realistic solution. Once you drive many out of town, where are you going to get the funds you promised your constituents from?

Solutions must be pragmatic in nature. I.E as an example, there needs to be less red tape in order to build a property.

 

[myata]

10 minutes ago, Perspektiv said:

I.E as an example, there needs to be less red tape in order to build a property.

In the last coupe of decades there's been no shortage of properties being built. They are different kind of properties though: luxury condos, mansions check it out in any larger city. The supply and demand aren't balanced: the investment class, pension funds, foreign demand all focus on the luxury segment; PS, MP pensions where would the excesses go? Not only this reduces supply in the "regular" segment of the market but drives the prices up too. A personally known example: a one bedroom apartment in a block that was rented for $600 two decades back now goes (for new renters) for 1,500 close to 10% annual inflation.

There's no easy solutions for this. And about the last place to look for them is Canada's entrenched self-absorbed and happy bureaucracy. We just can't see and accept that throwing difficult problems at the bureaucracy doesn't work anymore. It just does its thing and brings you the expense report and that's all you can get from it.

[CITIZEN_2015]

28 minutes ago, Perspektiv said:

This just drives them out in droves. Its not a realistic solution. Once you drive many out of town, where are you going to get the funds you promised your constituents from?

Solutions must be pragmatic in nature. I.E as an example, there needs to be less red tape in order to build a property.

 

Moving out of birth country (just because they paid a few thousand more) is not going to happen. Taxes are much higher in Scandinavian countries but I don't see Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian citizens leaving their homeland to other countries. They have a just society much better than Nort America.

[Perspektiv]

19 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

In France, François Hollande tried this, and people moved their money to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Am not surprised.

I mean, I just don't understand the logic behind politicians believing that heavier taxes on their largest donors will somehow work out in the long run. I'm not even in the 1% and would be quick to leave, if policies put in place started to hurt me, financially.

[West]

Well thats what happens when you have a woke prime minister who allows unfettered immigration. 

[Nationalist]

It's true that government intervention in the housing markets coupled with pie-in-the-sky immigration, has been a main contributer to this availability and price problem. More intervention would be...a bad thing.

Nobody ever wants to solve the homeless issues though. Just band-aids. Years ago, the Ontario Conservatives made a bad mistake. They closed the mental institutions. They need to be resurrected for many of the homeless. That's called a "solution" to much of the homeless issue.

If affordable housing is to be created, it should not occure in the major cities. Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver should have a moritorium on immigration. Were the government quit messing with our mining operations, the industry would grow organically, thus requiring more people like...immigrants. Housing and communities outside our largest cities, would flourish within a few years, which would naturally feed the economies of the cities.

There are real and simple solutions. All it takes is a desire to achieve and the mentality to ignore the screams of the socialists in the cities...who would go ape-shit.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Nationalist

[myata]

And again, immigration is only a part of in the set of challenges quickly growing more complex and entangled. In a democratic country citizens make their governments work for them. And in Canada, citizens can do pretty much nothing, and the bureaucracy runs itself. And that is not a great idea, any place, ever. Just not going to work.

[Perspektiv]

3 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Moving out of birth country

I wouldn't move out of my country over paying a significant increase in taxes, but would most certainly do so within it. I would move where it makes sense for me and my family. People migrating within their country, is nothing new.

Humans in general, aren't going to do something because its better for others. They'll want to know: "what's in it for me?"

You can't shame people into change. You can try, but those who have the brains and the means, will usually just leave once living somewhere just ends up hurting them more than leaving.

Increasing taxes, and adding red tape to conducting business somewhere, means you lose that business. Those who need those jobs, lose those jobs, and the government who needs those taxes end up having to make others foot those bills. You look at states like NY in the US, and see that these policies just don't work.

 

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, myata said:

In the last coupe of decades there's been no shortage of properties being built. They are different kind of properties though: luxury condos, mansions check it out in any larger city.

I''m afraid that isn't true. The total number alone is inadequate. There is a HUGE shortage of all styles.  The vast vast majority of homes built in greater vancouver for example are "average" townhomes and apartments. Not luxury. But we're still falling way short.

It's estimated that we fall short about 100,000 homes per year.  We are now short by close to 1.8 million homes as it turns out:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/adv/article-are-we-building-enough-homes-the-short-answer-is-no/

There's a few research documents on this.

And this is why housing prices and rents are through the roof.  And there is NO way to fix it except build more homes. and by 'more' we're talking shit-tonnes more.

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Moving out of birth country (just because they paid a few thousand more) is not going to happen. Taxes are much higher in Scandinavian countries but I don't see Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian citizens leaving their homeland to other countries. They have a just society much better than Nort America.

There system don't allow for there to be that many, and that's causing it's own problems right now. And the ones they do have tend to leave. And they move their money when they don't move themselves.

And btw - people are leaving sweden in record numbers right now, and most of the other countries mentioned have sinilar problems. They simply can't support their models.

So yeah - tax the rich and lose the country.  Or the state - New york tried this too  and it was a disaster that's left them with massive problems.

Rich people will pay a certain amount in taxes, and after that it's cheaper to pay someone to hide it or to move it out of country for you. Or to leave and pay taxes in a cheaper jurisdiction. That is ALWAYS how it ends up.

[CdnFox]

1 hour ago, Nationalist said:

Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver should have a moritorium on immigration.

HOw does that work though? Once people are in-country they can move around wherever they like. You could never police it and it wouldn't be constitutional if you could.

[Nationalist]

19 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

HOw does that work though? Once people are in-country they can move around wherever they like. You could never police it and it wouldn't be constitutional if you could.

It would have to be based on social services I would think.

[CdnFox]

4 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

It would have to be based on social services I would think.

Freedom of movement is pretty much a constitutional right - you couldn't say "we're only going to provide gov't services if you live in such and such a spot.".

I don't think that's a workable suggestion.

[herbie]

4 hours ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

That communism is defined as the government building things instead of private enterprise. Did you not know even that much?

Hell buy into the whole 'conservative' idea why don't you and rail against the socialists building phone companies, railroads, hydro, car insurance, ferries too. All that was built because it wasn't profitable for private enterprise to do it, or because they did a shit job of it. It's why you have Transit corps and not 12 Joe's Bus Co. and Frank's Bus Co. 'competing' and only serving one profitable route. Everyone seems to have forgotten that bit of history, like why Air Canada even exists and only 1 private airline can even try in the market.

[Nationalist]

7 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

Freedom of movement is pretty much a constitutional right - you couldn't say "we're only going to provide gov't services if you live in such and such a spot.".

I don't think that's a workable suggestion.

Why not? A person wants to be in Canada...requires social assistance...and can have it if they reside in certain places.

[CITIZEN_2015]

2 hours ago, Perspektiv said:

I wouldn't move out of my country over paying a significant increase in taxes, but would most certainly do so within it. I would move where it makes sense for me and my family. People migrating within their country, is nothing new.

 

I was suggesting Federal as well as Provincial tax increases for the wealthy (all over Canada).

[CITIZEN_2015]

34 minutes ago, herbie said:

That communism is defined as the government building things instead of private enterprise. Did you not know even that much?

 

Communism is a hell lot more than government building things. Get educated. 

In all countries even the most capitalist ones governments are building things. Certain projects like public roads, bridges, certain massive industries (infrastructure as a whole), even public libraries and universities (like State universities in the God of capitalism in the US) are all being built by governments. Why not affordable public housing?

Edited February 25, 2023 by CITIZEN_2015