Homeowners in core housing need: Understanding affordability and other challenges

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To improve our understanding of the lived experience of homeowners in core housing need and to inform responses to improve these conditions this research explores the following questions:

What are the underlying issues that homeowners in core housing need face that impact affordability? How are these issues related to adequacy and suitability?
Have past program and policy decisions, by provincial, territorial or municipal governments, placed some homeowners in precarious housing situations? If so, how?
What is the nature and magnitude of these affordability, adequacy and suitability challenges for homeowners in core housing need? What additional measures to support homeowners in need through the National Housing Strategy can be developed in the future?

To answer these questions, we commissioned a research team from the Institute of Urban to interview housing professionals in provinces in Canada. The aim was to learn more about the policies and programs that are important to homeowners. The research team also compiled a list of relevant policies and programs in selected provinces. This information will help us understand the issues that homeowners face.

We learned several things in this study:

Many people were spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Out of these, a few people were spending up to 70% of their income on housing.
Many homeowners said that they didn't have many other housing options that were affordable.
People with mortgages recognized that the rent for a 1-bedroom apartment was more than their mortgage payment.

Download the Homeowners in Core Housing Need: Understanding Affordability and Other Challenges Research Insight for all of the findings.