Report calls for return of federal government to affordable housing. (Shelter).

OTTAWA -- The Canadian government should once again return to its role of spending money as it did in the mid sixties to the mid 1980's to ensure an adequate supply of affordable housing, says a study on housing policy.

In his study, Housing Policy for Tomorrow's Cities, J. David Hulchanski, director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto, recommends that the federal government double its annual expenditure for housing in five areas.

These include:

* $1 billion in capital funding for 20,000 to 25,000 new social housing units per year;

* $500 million per year for rent supplements to go directly to landlords for 160,000 households;

* $125 million a year for 10,000 new supportive housing units with integrated social and other services for special needs tenants and those without other support;

* $125 million annually to restore 30,000 units that otherwise might face demolition; and

* $250 million a year in services and shelter for homeless people.

Estimating such new monies would account for an increase in spending on social housing from one per cent to two per cent, Hulchanski said "the lack of affordable housing cuts significant number of Canadians off from supportive communities, access to employment and indeed, from the exercise of their citizenship rights."

Hulchanski charges that the current housing system in Canada is actually "dehousing" Canadians, and that reversing that situation must be a part of any national strategy to enhance the quality of life and competitiveness of Canada's cities.

Further he notes that current public housing policies not only rely on but also reinforce a market mechanism, "which works for owners but not for renters."

Currently, on average homeowners spend about 18 per cent of their total income on housing while renters on average spend about 28 per cent. In addition, homeowners average twice the income of renters and that gap is growing while cuts to social assistance of 20 to 40 per cent have exacerbated the situation with families spending as much as 50 per cent on their allowance on housing and still not finding suitable accommodation.