HOUSING FOR PEOPLE - NOT PROFIT

Housing is a right, not a commodity

The right to adequate housing and shelter is recognized in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

However, over 700,000 households across Ontario are in core housing need. “Core housing need” means people are spending more than 30% of household income for housing that is crowded and in need of major repairs, and who do not have access to acceptable housing.

The causes of the crisis are government austerity and deregulation, corporate financialization and speculation. Policy “solutions” that amount to subsidies or incentives for developers and landlords have either been inadequate or contributed to the crisis. It is clear that the housing market has created massive profits for a few but has been unable to guarantee sufficient construction and maintenance of acceptable and affordable housing.

It’s time for real action to confront the housing crisis!

• Introduce a comprehensive provincial social housing program that treats housing as a public utility and delivers it according to need;

• Develop and implement an emergency plan to build 200,000 new, publicly owned, social housing units, and upgrade/retrofit existing units, to address the massive core housing need in all areas of Ontario;

• Legislate rent rollbacks and controls for all renters in Ontario to ensure no one has to pay more than 20% of income on housing.

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This campaign has been initiated by the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)