Human Resources committee  Certainly, access to credit is a critical factor in driving up [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Home prices are market-driven. They are driven by what people can afford to pay. As much as the development industry would argue they are cost-based, I would argue they're market based, and then you would make sure the cost could be achieved.

Human Resources committee  There is a great deal of ambiguity about what the accelerator fund is intended to do. In CMHC's consultation, they said that “Everyone [in Canada] deserves to have a safe and affordable place to call home.” They said they needed to remove barriers to housing supply and wanted to offer options for renters to become homeowners.

Human Resources committee  It is a complex problem. I think there are two elements here. One is this definition of affordability. As the member from Calgary mentioned, it means all things to all people. We don't really know what affordability is. The term “affordable housing” really focuses more on low-income folks and housing affordability is whether or not our kids can afford to buy a house.

Human Resources committee  I'd be happy to comment. Mr. Goldstein mentioned the issue about the existing stock and about losing it. We haven't seen the data yet from 2021, but from 2011 to 2016 in this country we lost 322,000 units that were renting below $750 a month. That was 60,000 units a year of very affordable existing housing, most of which was in the private sector.

Human Resources committee  The issue I was focusing on there was that housing need has those three categories. Is the unit big enough or suitable? Is it in good enough condition? Is it affordable? Of those folks in core housing need, 92% have only an affordability problem. They're living in a house that's adequate and suitable.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for having me here today. I'm a long-time housing policy consultant and also am affiliated with research centres both at McMaster University and Carleton. I've spent about 40 years studying housing issues, particularly housing affordability issues. In response to a call for ideas from CMHC back in January, I did submit a detailed brief discussing the issues of housing supply, the relationship between housing supply and affordability and the recent escalation in home prices and rents and provided some suggestions on how to structure the proposed accelerator fund.