And sadly it's also investors who build what housing we even do get. These condos, townhomes and subdivisions still heavily rely on investors to exist. Most of us wouldn't be living where we are if it weren't for investors investing in the development of our condos, apartments or entire subdivisions.
It's not as if our various levels of government are all that willing to invest in this stuff themselves. I mean...our region throws spare change around to promote actual shanty towns. We literally spend tens of thousands of dollars a month to put some portable toilets and security guards making barely above minimum wage in a shanty town next to Google Canada and in our main public park and call that a temporary solution we should be proud of. Waitlists for more tangible housing is still years and years long. We've got international students lured here with the allure of great education, job prospects and a life only to find themselves living in the corner of a room of a gross apartment with 6+ other people. It's actually no wonder why there has been a 40% decline in permanent residents coming to Canada even bother to become citizens anymore. There's very little point.
The severe lack of actual investment in public housing is one of the biggest issues, not investors and people running Airbnb's. We love to point fingers in this country whilst doing next to nothing since it's easier. Spend a few years trying to find a vacant plot of land to build some literal sheds for people (oh, sorry, "better tents")? Green stamp the hell out of that. Spend money on community housing? Nope. We're a region of over 630'000 people and the Region of Waterloo oversees a mere 5600 units of public housing (not much better elsewhere, though. TCHC only has 58'000 units for nearly 3 million Toronto citizens). And when they do try to promote public housing solutions that aren't literally garden sheds from Home Depot in some plot of grass nobody can see, it's negotiating with wealthy developers: we'll approve your condo project if you agree to throw some pocket change into our affordable housing piggy bank so we can act like we're doing something. Worse, the feds keep inviting people in we can't accommodate. It's to the point the federal government is actually shipping the poorest migrants arriving into Québec to Ontario by the hundreds. Yet they're also opening the doors to about half a million of them every. single. year (447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024). People can't afford to rent a room, find a doctor or feed themselves but the Liberals are like, yeah, come on in. Open for business. Pitch your tent somewhere, if you can find a spot. Try not to get sick, though if you do you can maybe legally kill yourself like the disabled are sadly now feeling compelled to do.
It's not as if our various levels of government are all that willing to invest in this stuff themselves. I mean...our region throws spare change around to promote actual shanty towns. We literally spend tens of thousands of dollars a month to put some portable toilets and security guards making barely above minimum wage in a shanty town next to Google Canada and in our main public park and call that a temporary solution we should be proud of. Waitlists for more tangible housing is still years and years long. We've got international students lured here with the allure of great education, job prospects and a life only to find themselves living in the corner of a room of a gross apartment with 6+ other people. It's actually no wonder why there has been a 40% decline in permanent residents coming to Canada even bother to become citizens anymore. There's very little point.
The severe lack of actual investment in public housing is one of the biggest issues, not investors and people running Airbnb's. We love to point fingers in this country whilst doing next to nothing since it's easier. Spend a few years trying to find a vacant plot of land to build some literal sheds for people (oh, sorry, "better tents")? Green stamp the hell out of that. Spend money on community housing? Nope. We're a region of over 630'000 people and the Region of Waterloo oversees a mere 5600 units of public housing (not much better elsewhere, though. TCHC only has 58'000 units for nearly 3 million Toronto citizens). And when they do try to promote public housing solutions that aren't literally garden sheds from Home Depot in some plot of grass nobody can see, it's negotiating with wealthy developers: we'll approve your condo project if you agree to throw some pocket change into our affordable housing piggy bank so we can act like we're doing something. Worse, the feds keep inviting people in we can't accommodate. It's to the point the federal government is actually shipping the poorest migrants arriving into Québec to Ontario by the hundreds. Yet they're also opening the doors to about half a million of them every. single. year (447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024). People can't afford to rent a room, find a doctor or feed themselves but the Liberals are like, yeah, come on in. Open for business. Pitch your tent somewhere, if you can find a spot. Try not to get sick, though if you do you can maybe legally kill yourself like the disabled are sadly now feeling compelled to do.