National Housing Strategy: An Update

At CHF we support a National Housing Strategy and we’re grateful for the opportunity to provide input to the government’s consultation process. We talked to Janice Chan, System Planner at CHF, for an update.

How is CHF involved in the National Housing Strategy?

JC: In total, we helped draft two surveys, five letters and three briefs for the National Housing Strategy. These included preparing our own brief and letter to the minister; meeting with CHF’s Client Action Committee (CAC), a committee comprised of individuals with lived experience, helping to prepare a response on their behalf; contributing to Maytree/United Way’s submission by sharing our CAC results; and participating in the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s survey. We also financially partnered with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness to support their collective response, and helped prepare submissions on behalf of 7 Cities, Enough for All’s Social Policy Collaborative and the Community Housing Affordability Collective (CHAC).

What have been the biggest wins so far? 

JC: We’ve had enormous interest among all three levels of government.  This includes financial commitments at the federal and provincial levels and municipal interest in moving affordable housing development applications forward quickly.  We’ve also seen policy commitments, which include the City of Calgary Corporate Affordable Housing Strategy (passed in July 2016), as well as consultations for the Provincial Affordable Housing Strategy and National Housing Strategy.

What are the next steps for the strategy and CHF?

JC: The province has posted results of the consultation on their website and CHF continues to be involved in conversations with the province on their strategy. We’re working with CHAC to move projects forward, such as the Non-Market Real Estate Strategy and we’ll continue to participate in consultations as the government forms policy. We want to ensure the voice of people experiencing homelessness is included in upcoming housing strategies.

For more information please see our six recommendations for inclusion into the National Housing Strategy and our Key Supporting Statistics.