General Introduction to the Issue

It has been fifty years since Canada began implementing housing programs on a continuing basis and forty years since a national housing agency, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, was established. Canadians have a right to ask: After a half century of housing programs and the expenditure of many billions of dollars, why do we still have housing problems? There is no denying that Canadians are among the best housed people in the world. What matters more than comparisons with other countries, however, is the comparison of Canadians with each other. Such a comparison raises the question of distribution: the wide disparity in the quality, quantity and affordability of the shelter occupied by rich and poor households, by home owners and renters, by urban and rural populations, and by native and non-native Canadians.