The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its annual rental apartment survey earlier this month highlighting some stabilization in vacancy rates, but continued increases in rents in most metropolitan cities.

The data identify only one part of the rental affordability issue - rent levels.

The other critical element is how apartment rents compare to household incomes.

One way to measure how affordable, or not, average market rents are is to determine the minimum hourly wage a worker must earn to afford a rental unit without spending more than the norm of 30 per cent typically used to measure housing affordability. The concept currently used in the US was adapted to Canada by Steve Pomeroy of Focus Consulting Inc. using the CMHC average market rent statistics released each fall.

On-line Discussion on Housing Program Choices

CHRA has developed a discussion paper to help Canada move towards a national housing framework that outlives policy fads or the next election. The paper, written by CHRA´s Research and Policy Committee, is intended to raise discussion around a number of different tools and seek input from across the country. It is not a CHRA position paper.

CHRA would like your views and opinions. Please read the discussion paper at:
and join the discussion.