Home ownership for some Canadians continues to be out of reach. Here’s why

Housing challenges remain for some populations because of unaffordable rent, skyrocketing home prices, and the rising costs of living in urban cities, an expert says.

Black people and lone seniors continued to face housing challenges in 2021 despite fewer households living in unaffordable situations, a recent report from Statistics Canada shows.

According to an expert, housing problems remained for some populations because of unaffordable rent, skyrocketing home prices, and the rising costs of living in urban cities like Toronto and Vancouver.

“Rising rent costs in cities like Toronto are creating a huge barrier in terms of affording housing,” said Nemoy Lewis, an assistant professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University.

Lewis says the StatCan data signals to the fact that not enough is being done to safeguard some of the most vulnerable segments in the population.

“More needs to be done,” he said, citing the need to get rid of vacancy decontrol and put a cap on rent hikes.

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario explains on its website that when a unit is vacated there are no limits and the landlord is allowed to charge any new rent that the market will bear. That recently vacated unit can cost the new tenant hundreds of dollars more in rent per month.

It is basically “a lack of regulations that would limit how much landlords are legally allowed to charge for unoccupied units,” the center stated.

According to a housing affordability data from Ratehub.ca, people will need to be making more than $220,000 to buy a home in Toronto and Vancouver with a 20 per cent down payment.