National Housing Strategy
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Rights-Based Intergovernmental Agreements for the Next National Housing Strategy (2026)
This report aims to help guide the creation of both multilateral and bilateral agreements between the federal government and the provinces, territories, municipalities, regional bodies, and Indigenous governments as part of the next National Housing Strategy. It outlines recommendations for a multilateral Housing Partnership Framework, grounded in key principles such as a rights-based approach, shared definitions, and core indicators to measure progress toward goals of ending homelessness and ensuring all Canadians have access to safe, affordable, and adequate housing.
A Rights-Based Approach to the Canada Housing Benefit (2026)
The Canada Housing Benefit, introduced in 2017, is a key program within the National Housing Strategy that was meant to temporarily bridge the gap between rents and affordability for very low- and low-income households. However, it has not achieved its purpose, as it has simply provided a small number of renters with an amount insufficient to actually make market rent affordable. In the next National Housing Strategy, the benefit should be revised to include rights-based targets and transparent reporting on indicators that allow for monitoring progress towards those targets. This report outlines how that can be done.
Building Homes, Upholding Rights: A Human Rights Approach to Housing Agreements (2026)
This report makes an argument for attaching rights-based conditions to federal housing funds in a model known as contractual federalism. This would be similar to how health spending is used to create national standards while respecting provincial authority, and provincial and municipal governments would be required to demonstrate progress towards the right to adequate housing as described in the National Housing Strategy Act (2019).
Human Rights-Based Housing Targets and Mechanisms for Canada (2025)
The purpose of this report by Carolyn Whitzman is to provide guidance to the Federal Housing Advocate on targets and mechanisms she can recommend to the newly elected federal government that align with the right to adequate housing. It reviews recent federal targets and mechanisms, including monitoring and interim evaluation targets, and recommends targets and mechanisms that align with the government’s legal obligations under the National Housing Strategy Act. These evidence-based recommendations will allow the federal government to more effectively realize the right to adequate housing.
A Human Rights Approach to Housing Supply (2023)
Shared definitions and calculations of baseline housing supply needs are a necessary first step to develop evidence-based, coordinated policies that can better respond to homelessness and inadequate housing.
This report, A Human Rights-Based Calculation of Canada’s Housing Shortages, is commissioned by the Federal Housing Advocate. It focuses on evidence related to housing need divided by income category, household size, and priority population to conclude there exists a current shortfall of three million homes affordable to very low- and low-income households and 1.4 million homes affordable to moderate- and median-income households.
This report begins to answer the question of “who needs what housing where and at what cost.” It includes estimates of those who are unsheltered and in emergency shelters, those in inadequate congregate housing and on farms, and students who are in housing need. It also includes suppressed household formation and suppressed local demand, while recognizing that further evidence needs to be generated on all forms of housing need. Critically, it factors in the housing needs of a rapidly growing population.
National Housing Strategy Fact Sheets (2023)
The Federal Housing Advocate has the responsibility to monitor the National Housing Strategy (NHS) to ensure it fulfills Canada’s commitments under the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA), is compatible with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, protects the rights of disadvantaged groups and furthers the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing in Canada. In doing so, the Advocate is also guided by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (2021).
The fact sheets contained in this publication were developed based on research undertaken for the office by the National Right to Housing Network, the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network, Bruce Porter and Steve Pomeroy.
The fact sheets summarize the conclusions of this research and provide practical analysis and recommendations for renewing and strengthening the NHS so that it complies with the NHSA. While the issues and recommendations are presented as distinct, they are best understood when considered as parts of a whole.
The report was submitted to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion in March 2022 for consideration to renew and strengthen the National Housing Strategy as it approaches its 5th anniversary on November 22, 2022.