- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ml
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In a move that I didn’t see get any mainstream press coverage, although I learned about it through the Fediverse, the highly influential extension of the federal government, the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation), quietly redefined affordable housing this year from at most 30% of gross income to 40-45% of gross income (and plausibly 50% by 2035). “Affordable housing” is one step below “market [price based] housing”, so spending 50% of earnings on rent seems like the policy’s working as intended. Society’s @#$%ed
Sources
From the CMHC link:
The “housing continuum,” now with benches in parks. Sadly they missed the sleep-prevention middle bar most park benches have these days.
I just love how there’s no home ownership in there. It’s renting all the way down.
But it’s not what the scale is made for. Where would you even put it? Homeowners can buy market housing or other types of housing, including affordable housing and community housing
In a move that I didn’t see get any mainstream press coverage, although I learned about it through the Fediverse
I have some evidence that mods on the major Canadian subreddits actively censor and push specific political and ideological points. I have built tools to track it too.
Great initiative, good on you! I’d love to see some preliminary data some time. I remember testing whether reddit geo-blocked “mail order marijuana” to Canadians around 2020, and sure enough they did. I’ve been off reddit for 2 years since the API debacle. Are mods on the major Canadian subreddits users or employees? If users, how/why are they so motivated to censor and promote certain narratives? Are they selected for the role based on their activity (e.g., they’re already pro ‘freedom convoy’) and then retained (and motivated to stick to certain narratives) through ongoing relatively small monetary gifts?
Here’s a public version of my script I released last night: https://github.com/unbound-sigbreak/Reddit-Removal-Lock-Tracker
It’s not even subtle
This did get media coverage: https://archive.is/ABVDl
The reason this hasn’t blew up is because it’s not as much of bombshell as one might think. Looks like you’re conflating two things: the definition of affordable housing vs housing affordability targets. The definition of “what is affordable housing” hasn’t changed, it’s still 30% if income.
CMHC updated its affordability benchmark which is its own separate thing it uses to track progress on affordability levels. It might sound the same but these are separate things. For example, we can still build projects that are in the “affordable housing” category but if whether we build enough of it is one of the factors in the hit or miss of the affordability benchmark set as the levels observed in 2019.
Thanks for your comment and the article. The link didn’t resolve for me but I’d guess that was a globe and mail article.
Was the affordability benchmark not the same as the affordable housing definition (from 2003 or whenever) until this reports and the decisions behind it at the CMHC this year decoupled them?
No, these have always been different things. They were similar numbers, one was and still is 30% and the other was close to 30% nationally in 2004 (but for BC the benchmark was already >40% for example) but these numbers were not “linked”, they were close to each other - which was a good thing, hence why it was a good benchmark at the time.
Thanks for the info!
It’s been clear ever since the one-bedroom apartment rent outpaced the 30% mark on minimum wage. It’s now over $2300 in Toronto and the mininum wage gross per month is about 3100. That puts us at 74% of gross income.
Doesn’t this mean the net income is dangerously close to the rent value itself?
Probably. Didn’t compute it but likely.
I don’t really think anyone should make minimum wage in Toronto.
I also don’t think we should have a minimum wage.
It just tells companies they don’t have to compete on low skill labour.
Except minimum wage doesn’t do that. In most scenarios, due to the persistent unemployment level, there’s a race to the bottom on wages which creates poverty wages for the “low skilled” labour, creating an underclass, with all inherent problems of that. Firms don’t have to compete for workers by increasing wages because there’s always unemployed workers looking for any job to avoid homelessness. This is how you get the working poor population in the US. The minimum wage puts a floor to this process. When the floor is above the poverty line, it eliminates the working poor population.
Besides, the minimum wage doesn’t stop firms from offering more to workers if they felt they didn’t get enough applications or skill.
UBI on top would make it so people don’t have to take exploitative wages for fear of getting fired or passed over
Yeah, UBI could probably make the minimum wage redundant.
I remember being told 1/3 was a lot, hoping and finding the cheapest rat trap I could, and it was 2/3 my income. That was fun.
END HOME SCALPING
If you are lucky enough that you can afford the rent solo. Most people might have roommates to stay afloat.
Canadians get free healthcare though.
Yes. My wife had to go back to China, where she was born, to have a biopsy and cancer removed after waiting over 2 years for this free healthcare.
She’s a citizen and has lived here for 15 years.
I really want to gtfo of Canada. There are literally too many issues across the board to think about. The “New World” experiment has failed.
Head to he east coast. They are a little more sane and grounded.
Where would you go? This trend is not unique to Canada, it’s happening all across the West. Every liberal democracy will eventually end up like this.
Trade ya
