Affordable housing has grown beyond being an election campaign issue.
The realization is dawning on all of us that children growing up today will be making virtually every key decision based on rents and mortgages.
Will they be able to attend university? There are innumerable studies that indicate students from northern and rural communities are already less likely to attend college or university than their urban counterparts. Finances play a huge role in that.
The grants and loans available to students for post-secondary education simply cannot keep up with skyrocketing city rents. The housing shortage will exacerbate an already difficult decision for students considering whether to go after that degree.
Will they ever be able to buy a house? At an age when most of us were living happily on our own and taking out mortgages, many of our children will still be living in the family home. While this is a cultural norm in many parts of the world, multigenerational households are not a social norm for us. Or rather, they have not been.
It is no longer unusual for adults to continue living with their parents well into their 20s and even 30s. Nor is it rare for them to move back home, children in tow, after a divorce or job loss.
Many young people have decided they will never be able to buy a house or condo. Increasingly, even renting a decent apartment is growing beyond their reach. Stories about prospective tenants getting into bidding wars over apartments are no longer newsworthy.
Will they have children? Some are already choosing to delay having families until they can live independently, which may never happen.
Every political candidate in this country/province/community has, at some point, spoken about ensuring these good, hard-working individuals have access to affordable housing. No one finds fault with this sentiment.
However, it does raise questions about people who may not be so good or hard-working. Do folks have to “deserve” access to housing, earn the right to a roof over their heads through good deeds and a clean criminal record? The unfortunate fact is, Canada has a climate that makes adequate housing more of a necessity than the luxury it is quickly becoming.
Some people experiencing homelessness have jobs or pensions from jobs, and have paid taxes all their working lives. Others have survived for years on some form of welfare. Some may have been “renovicted” out of their affordable apartment and are unable to find another place within their means, suffered ill health or a broken marriage, or made unwise financial decisions.
Some suffer from mental illness and/or addictions, or are unable to find work because they spent time in prison. And simply some lost out on the lottery we call life.
They all need safe, decent housing to survive.
There is something desperately wrong with a society that sees million-dollar homes being snapped up by the wealthy as fast as they can be constructed, while those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale are sleeping in doorways and tents in the middle of the winter – or packed into crime-ridden fire traps of rooming houses and shelters.
Perhaps if affordable housing for everyone – not just good, hard-working, tax-paying citizens – were a priority, social services would have greater success helping those who need it. This would result in fewer people landing in the emergency department of the local hospital, suffering with everything from malnutrition to gangrene. There would be fewer people landing in jail, when their “crime” is needing treatment for mental illness or drug addiction. And there might even end up being more hard-working, taxpaying citizens, who just needed a bit of help.
It all starts with a decent place to live. In a place like Canada, with a challenging climate and a lot of wealth, this should be a basic human right.
A word of advice to prospective political candidates for any position at any level of government: homeless drug addicts may not vote, but they all have family members who do.
