Federal NDP leader promises huge investment in affordable housing if elected

“Everyone is struggling; it is something that really is impacting a lot of people,” Singh said in an interview with CFJC Today after his town hall.

Singh is proposing a two-pronged approach to providing more affordable housing to Canadians.

“One is getting at the speculation that’s driving up the cost of housing, so with the national foreign buyers’ tax, to discourage foreign investment,” Singh said. “The second is to really massively invest in building housing the way we did in post-World War era where thousands of thousand of homes were built, commonly known as the Vancouver special. Those post-war homes were the first homes that people were able to afford.”

The federal NDP have earmarked $14 billion over ten years as the starting point for their plan, which includes the construction of 500,000 affordable units, which Singh says will be spread out in communities across the country.

“This is something that would be needed across the country and we need to make sure that it’s done in a way that responds to the needs of the community.”

Sundhu, who hopes to be elected MP in the next federal election, believes there is a definite need here in Kamloops.

“We have a homelessness problem, but of course, this is way beyond homelessness,” Sundhu said. “This is people who are really stretched and not able to afford other things in their life. That would be one of the top issues here and across the country, but particularly for people in Kamloops, 100 Mile House, Clearwater, Barriere is housing affordability. It would be at the top of my list.”

Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian isn’t sure the post-wartime model is right for the current situation, but he does agree more affordable housing is needed.

“We did a study last year and we found that fully 20 per cent of the residents of Kamloops were spending more than 30 per cent of their income on either rental housing or home-ownership,” Christian said, “so that’s a problem and we want to address that with the development community to make sure that the market looks after not only the high end, but also that sort of missing middle of housing affordability and entry level housing.”

The 500,000 affordable units proposed by the NDP would be a mix of rental, cooperative housing and homes that people can buy.

“Affordability can’t be half of someone’s salary, which is what we’re seeing right now,” Singh said. “That’s not affordable. It’s got to be 10 per cent, 20 per cent, in that range of someone’s salary so that it’s truly affordable.”

Singh also plans to double the first time homebuyer’s tax credit and reintroduce the 30-year mortgage.

by Jill Sperling

Federal NDP leader promises huge investment in affordable housing if elected

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