CBC Ottawa visited a number of apartments that have been destroyed by Housing First-supported clients and their guests. Landlords we spoke with say the syste...
It really seems to me that municipalities simply don’t have the resources to support housing. Housing is a national problem and leaving it up to municipalities only creates perverse incentives to drive people experiencing homelessness out of your community into another, which isn’t doing anything to solve the underlying problem. We need a national housing first program, but this story demonstrates the importance of getting it right.
Governments should also be building public housing, like yesterday. People scapegoat landlords a lot but they are also subject to the laws of supply and demand. The only two levers the government has are to decrease demand (e.g. cracking down on short term rentals, stunting our economy by limiting population growth) and increasing supply (e.g. zoning in the missing middle, building affordable public housing).
It really seems to me that municipalities simply don’t have the resources to support housing. Housing is a national problem and leaving it up to municipalities only creates perverse incentives to drive people experiencing homelessness out of your community into another, which isn’t doing anything to solve the underlying problem. We need a national housing first program, but this story demonstrates the importance of getting it right.
Governments should also be building public housing, like yesterday. People scapegoat landlords a lot but they are also subject to the laws of supply and demand. The only two levers the government has are to decrease demand (e.g. cracking down on short term rentals, stunting our economy by limiting population growth) and increasing supply (e.g. zoning in the missing middle, building affordable public housing).