Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis

by Carolyn Whitzman

This is the book that Canadians must read to understand, and solve, our housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians exist on the edge. Renters fear eviction, homeowners feel trapped, and both are vulnerable to becoming homeless with a single stroke of misfortune.


Unaffordable housing in Canada is tearing communities apart. Rising prices force long-time residents to move elsewhere, while established businesses are forced to close their doors because they cannot find staff who can afford to live nearby.


In Home Truths, housing expert Carolyn Whitzman explores Canada’s crisis from all sides, including defining what adequate housing looks like, explaining why nonmarket housing is crucial for Canada, and outlining how and why to tackle ever-growing wealth disparities between renters and those who own. She details the decades of policy that got us into this mess and shows how all levels of government can work together to provide affordable housing where it is needed, using evidence-backed ideas from planners, politicians, developers, and advocates at home and abroad.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, Urbanism, Economics, Politics, Urban Planning

334 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2024

Reviews

[Nigel Carvalho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially, increasing the percentage of non-market housing in our rental stock, paid for through major tax reforms, is the only way! It is amazing the way boomers who benefited from a strong social safety net and public housing funded through high property/wealth taxes deny later generations the same quality of life now that they are propertied.

As inspirational as these ideas, many of which have already been achieved elsewhere, are, I couldn’t help but feel the looming neoconservative era at our backs as I read. While these strategies are totally doable in theory, I personally found myself thinking “well, in that case... I need to get out of Canada!” fairly often.

[Kunal Arora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading Home Truths, and it's completely upending and reshaping everything I thought I knew about housing and solving Canada’s housing crisis. So much of what I believed—whether from popular media, government narratives, or for-profit developers—has been challenged in such an eye-opening way. Not to knock market developers, of course—there’s definitely a case for them working in harmony with non-market developers—but this book has really shifted my perspective.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a research paper on the housing crisis in Canada. It was honestly very informative and laid out how we got into this position and what next steps we need to be taking. Not sure how feasible all the solutions would be in terms of getting support but still a good read if you are stressed about the housing crisis.

[Derrick Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never read a book that so accurately and fairly described the Canadian housing crisis. Lots of good solutions in this book, both from the gov and private sector. Lots of useful stats too.

[Sarah Ezzio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely to read a book by a local author. Well researched but wish it included more on the financial side.

[Jane Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good points and recommendations. Lots of venom against NIMBYs, homeowners, and 'settlers '. The author is clearly experiencing a high level of frustration after working in this field for so long.

[Ally Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most important book I've read in years.

[Duane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good historical perspective of how the federal and provincial governments failed to provide housing in Canada. Some examples of the way places like Vienna, Singapore and other places have had the foresight to build housing for people of all economic strata. Factual, scholarly, and as a result a bit of a slog of a read, I guess I'm just been spoiled by writers who draw you in with human stories.

The upshot is this. Canadians need more public housing, and we need less big businesses building houses that can't be used by regular people. We're currently 5 million homes short.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canada, please just do everything that Carolyn Whitzman says. The current situation is untenable, and it’s fraying our social safety net to tatters. It’s not going to get easier anytime soon, and it’s likely to get harder.

[Bita · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I valued most in the book:

- The reframing of housing as infrastructure and a human right, not just a market commodity.
- The reminder that Canada once had a balanced housing vision (“the rule of thirds”) and chose to abandon it.
- The global examples (Vienna, Finland, Singapore, Tokyo), which prove solutions exist, though the sketches are broad, not technical.
- The call for all of us to become “housers,” treating housing justice as a movement.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative for any Canadian living in a big city, feeling a bit hopeless around home ownership. I learned a lot from this book, not only about what Canada can do to improve, but what other countries have done to address similar concerns. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, as long as policy makers are willing to see it and move towards it.

[Karen Ocana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an avid reader. Social science is not one of the subjects that most grabs my attention. But I read Home Truths, Carolyn Whitzman's new book on Canada's housing crisis, with rapt attention. Why? Because housing is a problem that concerns all Canadians. Secondly, because every one of us is somehow part of the problem, while also being a potential integral part of the solution.

Whitzman writes in her introduction: "At its heart, good housing policy comes down to a simple message. Homes save lives."

Home Truths speaks clearly to multiple audiences. It speaks in the language of housing and housing policy experts. It is necessarily analytic and quantitative, because housing needs a quantitative solution. The book offers definitions, statistics, diagrams and graphs galore. It maps out aspects of the problem and proposes possible solutions. Home Truths advocates for a quantitative solution: zero homelessness. Home Truths also speaks in the language of rights-based human rights advocacy. This language is synthetic and qualitative. It cares about providing adequate housing for all Canadians, irrespective of income, occupation, gender, ethnicity, education, or any other social determinant. Home Truths advocates for affordable and adequate housing for every single Canadian. And it advocates for responsible government, at all three levels -- federal, provincial/territorial and municipal -- to act collaboratively, across multiple threshholds, to address, redress and repair the root causes of housing inequity (be they political, social, or economic, or a combination of all three), and to provide adequate housing.

"Adequate housing [...] has seven elements: 1) secure tenure, 2) access to basic services, 3) affordability, 4) habitability, 5) accessibility, 6) location, and 7) cultural adequacy." [HT, p 21]

Carolyn Whitzman's Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis shows the way to a much brighter housing future for Canada. It offers examples of terrible housing and excellent housing. It shows what is possible, what is desirable, and what's not worth pursuing. The book's examples inspire hope, when they're used as carrots, to show what excellent results can be achieved through various kinds of great planning. But they also inspire repugnance, when they're used as sticks, to show how cruelly people can be made to suffer through poor planning that puts profits before people.

People before profits is one of the book's housing mantras. After all, a house is a place to live. We all need one! We all deserve a dignified home. And if we can afford two, or three different places to live, we can also afford to pay higher taxes -- progressive taxes, not regressive ones. Believe me, by the time you've finished reading Home Truths, if you have a scrap of moral integrity, the author will have turned you into a housing advocate too, a YIMBY-ist at that!

[Erik Lovicsek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a holistic, relevant, and up-to-date portrait of the current housing and homelessness crises in Canada. In fact, it made me realize that the two crises are in fact the same crisis in a way that I hadn't previously considered.

The most frustrating part about reading this was realizing that our current predicament was entirely avoidable, and that a sustainable and functional housing policy framework (including substantial investment in nonmarket housing) already existed on the national level up to the 1980s, when it was dismantled in the name of privatisation and neoliberal politics. That being said, there are other countries that have gone down a similar path (e.g. Germany) and have managed to recover. I concluded the book with the feeling that the current situation in Canada is more "fixable" than I had previously thought.

I would suggest to all Canadians to read this book, as it is accessible and engaging. If more voters were aware of the degree of abandonment of the housing file of all levels of government over the past four decades, the implications of this, and the fact that restoring an appropriate balance is entirely feasible, the political will to implement effective reforms would in my opinion quickly materialize.

[Maciej Walinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well researched and written book. Naturally it is heavily left-leaning in its philosophies and prescriptions (because the right-leaning answer on this issue has always been to simply let the market do its thing), but the assertions are backed by evidence rather than conjecture. It does a great job distilling a very complex topic into relatively simple ideas without ever over-simplifying or glossing over said complexities, and I appreciate Ms. Whitzman's measured tone throughout which induces the feeling of having a discussion rather than veering off into a finger-pointing rant. I could have done without any reference to McKinsey research as they are notorious for playing both sides, and have no doubt contributed to the poor government policy (and corporate initiatives) that commoditized housing in the first place (conjecture, but it's a bet I'll gladly make), but that is my only real gripe.

Anyone, on either side of the political spectrum, who would like to do a deeper dive into this topic, and hear evidence backed ideas of how to solve one of the most pressing issues of our time, would be well served to read this excellent book.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to generally be a good primer on the current housing situation in Canada and some possible solutions. At times, I think Whitzman could be clearer in distinguishing what policy options are broadly understood and accepted, and which ones are her preferred approaches.

In some areas, the discussion reminded me of what Ezra Klein has framed as "everything-bagel liberalism." While I haven't read Klein & Derek Thompson's book Abundance yet, I think it would be an interesting book to read alongside Home Truths for comparison and contrast.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything, from deep dive data, to stories, to lists, to graphs.
I reference this book so regularly, I feel like I need a copy at my house & also at my office.
Whitzman has an excellent ability to tell a story but then bring the facts into it. It's easily a blueprint that Canada could use to improve the housing sector for many years to come.
If there's been a good idea in housing in the past 100 yrs, you can bet it's in this book! We can repeat the smart things & learn from our mistakes, thanks to Whitzman pulling up our history lessons.

[Mitch Goulet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and easy to follow. I appreciate Whitzman's step-by-step approach to outlining how Canada got to where it is today and the robust options before us that can chip away at this crisis. Ideologically left with a strong advocacy for significant government intervention. I would have liked to see a wee bit more on the market-based factors that were somewhat brushed over like the labour shortages and supply chain issues.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, especially comparing Canada to other OECD nations & comparing provinces however I think the author may have a social democratic soft spot for capitalism that makes some of the critiques a nd suggestions a bit toothless when all evidence presented in the book suggests a nice radical change needs to be made not just in Canada but globally.

I enjoyed it and it was good to dive deeper into polls that have seen at least some temporary success around the world.

[Ben Ricketts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and thorough. Light on the financials and limited knowledge of municipal practice so I wonder what else she's grasping at. Spans a widerl range of topics while maintaining a central focus so a good read. France no evictions in winter. Portland pre fab neighborhood has fewer police calls than the city average.

[David Inwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything seemed accurate to me, but it seemed to mostly be things I had heard before, so I didn't find it that interesting. I skimmed most of the book.

[Donovan Thorimbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you. i skimmed it and learned a few important things. The writing style could be edited further, i think, to benefit from clarity and more concise.