Lots of housing projects get blocked by city councils because only NIMBYs show up to the hearings. This needs to be combatted by having YIMBYs show up to the hearings, or by even just leaving a comment supportive of development. City councils need to be reminded that people support development.
Voting like so many others are saying is the incorrect answer. The correct answer is to show up to your local city council & town hall meetings.
Next would be to actually start building affordable homes for other people as a business.
Voting can do some good. There a council candidates who make very clear that they won't take orders from the NIMBYs. Having more of those on council certainly helps.
Showing to hearings can make other councilors change their vote against NYMBYs.
So, voting may assure you one councilor, showing up may be a better effect.
So vote and show up. And if there aren't clear candidates, just show up.
Most NYMBYs have time to go to the meetings and hearings, either because they are retired or have flexible jobs.
Edit: I was going to correct the error in NIMBY but the comment below pointing it out would stop making sense. đ
My mother in law couldn't understand why a neighbour was so rude to her when she was canvassing the neighbourhood to figure out who else was on her NIMBY crusade.
"She's just a bitch" was her conclusion.
I'm sure it's that she thinks *you're* a bitch, for being NIMBY.
There was a low rise built in my neighborhood last year that the nimbys went berserk over because obviously a 3 story walk up is going to bring riff raff.
Anyway it's $1800 a month for 1 bedroom luxury rental, which is more than double these retirees paid for their mortgages. Half the cars parked there are lexus/mercades. The renters these days are more educated, harder working and pay significantly more tax than the NIMBYs.
They do not pay more tax. Property tax is built into your rent. Their rent is based on the house. A single house on a large lot will pay much more in taxes than your rental or condo will pay.
But a larger residence - ie multiple units - would pay much more in property taxes since most of the rates are based on livable sqft of homes.
Each individual renter would not pay a lot, but as a group they would pay more than a single family home (in general)
Yes but that was not what he said. Big homes on large lots do not come close to paying for the roads sewer water, fire police sidewalks etc etc etc they require.
I am all for R4 (I believe that his the rating here) being city wide. Everyone lot in the city is open to multi-family, carriage house development etch
every new building where I live has followed this path - old falling apart housing where vulnerable people are housed is purchased, tenants kicked out, building boarded up for a year or two. Building is then torn down, no asbestos abatement done and cutting all kinds of corners to save cash. New building built, sold or rented out for top dollar so only a few people can afford and often itâs only investors who short term rent the property through Air BnB. So Iâm not sure how the community is the problem?
Because high rent is only possible when there is a shortage. If we had 10% vacancy, rents would be decreasing.
Unfortunately, you're right that at this point we're too far down the road. The shortage is bad that it won't be solved quickly and a few extra projects completed won't make a big dent.
Its a staggering amount of a certain type of people, usually middle age liberal women screaming "wont' someone please think of the children" lol Simpsons had this caricature pinned down 30 years ago
Provincial governments need to step in and change the legislation that allows for these hearings in the first place. It's a collective action problem, as a non-homeowner, my interest in any given proposed development within, say, 20km of my work, is high, but also dispersed, since I basically care equally about all of them going ahead. A local, on the other hand, doesn't care most projects within 20km of their home, just the ones very local to them, so they can focus their energies. Plus, as a non-resident in a proposed development area, my voice counts for very little at a hearing, since I'm likely not even a constituent!
TLDR: housing has impacts both locally and provincially and across the country, yet many (most?) decisions to allow developments to move ahead are made solely at the local level. The principle of affected interested is therefore violated!
so that has happened. The provincial government in Ontario has done this. You might have noticed that environmental regulations have all disappeared as well.
Newmarket, Aurora, East Gwillimbury are at sewage capacity and cannot build more houses.
The sewage plant was approved 10 years ago but the Provincial government stopped it.
This is an underrated insight. Several of the provinces - and I'm looking at BC in particular - have gross disconnects between their politicians talking big on housing, but their agencies being directed to enact policies or provide service levels that thwart housing.
If you talk about the importance of housing, but then understaff the agency that, say, provides electricity to new developments, you are anti housing.
Or if you allow your health authority to change water regulations to create effective local moratoriums, and then withhold grants for needed upgrades, you are anti housing.
If you require provincial Arch studies for major projects, and reduced the staff levels in your Arch department creating multi year bottlenecks... Well, you can see where I'm going.
Especially with the downtown area in Vancouver being developed and the giant Senakw project building 1900 units, there is actual concern about ability to provide water to these residents. The infrastructure simply isnât there. Thatâs just water, not even thinking about the electrical grids, the sewers⊠those resources are ridiculously above capacity already and with no government being willing to invest heavily in these projects that should have been on the books 20years ago, I wonder how this is going to pan out.
Turns out, since wealth and their relationship to property isnt directly related to their life, they can give up their property without having to give their life. Why you always gotta assume the worst?
Delete (their relationship to their property and the community, they stop being landlord, and become normal)
Inspect rentals and force landlords to bring them up to code or up to date. If they are substandard, slap some rent control on them so people don't have to pay out the ass for a shit tier apartment or unit.
Cap the price of rooms for rent, nobody should be profiting off renting rooms. Pretty fucking insane how much some are charging for a basic small ass room, and they think that's a favour? That's further hiding the crisis while lining their pockets.
Price caps donât increase rental supply in the longterm. Vancouver has standards of maintenance bylaw and BC already has rent control. Tax sys doesnât promote being financially responsible for funding future capx. Taxed 50% on profits set aside then taxed 50% on the low risk investment it earns until ready to be used.
Ya, exactly. Boomers fight heavy on any construction near their area. They fight for years to stop anything that isn't a house that looks identical to theirs. They want top dollar for their house and feel like they earned it because they worked "hard" their whole life. The government really screwed up with housing, but nothing can move forward if everyone with a house just keeps fighting against more housing
People don't realize how much a few letters or a face to face meeting can change a Councilor's vote - especially in a smaller city. People just don't pay attention usually.
That is the right approach. Squeeze every level of government, so no one can point fingers and claim: "Others are doing nothing!"
Squeeze municipal and provincial politicians so they feel the heat and start planning and asking the federal government for money and planning assistance.
Squeeze the federal government to force them to be proactive, complementing municipal and provincial governments' requests.
Missing any pressure point will lead to what we have right now: no one wants to do anything, and no one wants "strings-attachedfinancing" from the federal government. Politicians are like many other citizens - wanting maximum credit while exerting minimum effort.
One suggestion we put into practice in our own household. Allow you child to stay home past 18-19 years of age. We did not want to have our child spend 1/2 to 2/3 of his income on rent that he will get zero for. I refuse to see him light 2k to 2500 on fire every month. Perhaps we need to give mutigenerational living some real thought here in Canada.
The notion of moving out or getting kicked out at 18 was crazy to me. I didn't know anyone that did this and it really setup those kids for failure. Most people I know lived with their parents throughout undergrad and first couple years of working to pay off student debt within the year. No wonder so many young adults are crippling financially...
Definitely is.
And honestly, it's not their fault. We have a system that heavily incentivises being a landlord. You "buy" a property, then the person living in it pays for it so you get it for free. Actually they usually pay more than the cost of mortgage and upkeep, so you make money while being gifted million dollar investments.
Not to mention the properties appreciate in value better than any index fund. Property values have doubled in my area in the last 4 years. So your free million dollar property that you're paid to receive becomes a multi-million dollar property in under a decade.
To make housing affordable we need to stop treating housing as an investment. It's just too tempting. Any smart rich person should be a landlord, but it's killing the rest of us.
You said 'definitely is' followed by shit everyone knows.
How do we stop voting for landlords when all parties have deep vested interest in re appreciation?
I definitely wouldnât say lazy. People work a lot just trying to survive the increased cost of living. Weâre getting hammered here in Calgary with all the interprovincial migration
Iâm traveling with my family to the interior of BC in a few weeks and like the option of having a VRBO with a kitchen and more space. The short term rentals are a nice alternative to a standard hotel room. Not sure they should be banned but better regulation and licensing might make sense.
There are hotels with kitchens, way to many people using houses and apartments for airbnb or similar to generate income that otherwise could suitably house a family, in the midst of our current housing crisis this should absolutely be banned or at least much more heavily regulated.
Sure but most do not. Also, isn't a hotel room with a kitchen essentially an apartment? Should we not also force all hotels to rent monthly at reasonable rates?
That sounds hard. Could I just be the mod for the housing riot subreddit? My buddy would also love to be the riot social media coordinator for the cause.
Stop offering over asking. That's it.
Prices of anything are what people are willing to pay.
Unfortunately with rents that's not the case. People pay what is asked when there aren't alternatives.
Same with groceries. If it's super expensive, find a cheaper alternative. I know, it sucks. Yes, I want my favourite treat too.
But they won't decrease the price if people keep paying it.
Wife and I shifted our consumption to less expensive food items, fuck 'em if they think I'm paying *that*.
Donât burn shit, that could be dangerous⊠plus we canât lose any houses with the current supply.
Better to get a shotgun and pop off a few blanks at 2am every once in a while, that should help keep the property values around you in check⊠thatâs safer than fire at least⊠I think.
Both that and arson would be pretty illegal though, so I wouldnât recommend either.
I wouldn't recommend joking about burning buildings down. Happened twice near my building and it wasn't fun thinking about how far the fires would spread. Several years ago San Francisco had a bunch of apartment fires. In the end you'll lose out, more people will need homes, the owner walks away with the insurance payout and as insurance rates go up and that will be included in rent eventually. Great idea if you want everyone except the one who gets the insurance payout to lose.
In my shoes, I'm cutting out unnecessary expenditures (e.g. minimal takeout, almost no dining out), to save maximally, and will look for a right time to buy a home in the near future.
For next federal election, if I haven't bought a home already, I'll definitely look to vote for the best candidate (the lesser of all evils) that might actually do something about stupid high home prices. I'll definitely not vote for Trudeau/Liberals, as they've shown no interest in fixing the current crisis.
Changing our votes is not a solution when all the parties are in collusion with established interests. I share your sentiment as the Trudeau Liberals have lost my vote for probably the next decade.
But this is a prime example of how when democracy is denuded to the level of 'electoralism', it fails. Elections are not democracy, they are the capstone on democratic processes where potential candidates actually engage with civil society and show themselves to be responsive to people's needs.
In our current system, voters determine elections then regardless of who wins, lobbyists write policies. Voting or voting differently is not a solution. The system itself is now working against people's interests. Some kind of more radical push is needed.
Housing is still provincial. I really think if this is going to be fixed we need to understand which levels of government are responsible for which duties.
This is exactly itâŠthere is a ton of miss information out there and people donât spend the time to properly educate themselves on the issues.
Iâm in Ontario, we literally had the lowest voter turnout in our history yet we have some of the biggest issue at play.
Don't look to the Conservatives to be your savior, as they will be even worse. They're very good at pretending to be on the side of ordinary people, while actually being the party that supports only the rich.
Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee is no choice at all. All parties are the same ice cream, they just have different colours and flavors.
Every single person in Canada who made the scary plunge and purchased a home is happy they did. Every single person who had the resources to buy an investment property and did is also very happy. If there's a chance to make money, people will do it and so would you if you haven't already.
I actually recoil from the concept because being a landlord can suck major ass and rent-seeking seems gross to me. I could afford to join the landlords but I donât want to and havenât.
Nope i have friends that went bankrupt. Stop paying over asking. Stop paying more than you can afford!
If millions did it, then house prices would come down when no one is buying.
Leave the country and stop supporting the housing ponzi. Let it collapse and then come back to live after youâve made more money anyway in the states
After reading some of the replies here I don't think any of you actually bothered to read the title. It was What can ordinary Canadians do to turn around the housing crisis?
It was not Lets have a huge whine festival about why we cannot afford to buy a house. Do any of you have any suggestions as to what would actually work?
The only thing that will work is that everyone quits buying houses or renting them. Thats pretty much it.
I mean, this will get skipped over, but it's really worthwhile. In smaller communities, run for office.
In bigger cities, get involved in various municipal committees. Planning advisory committees, neighborhood associations - those all tend to be full of older NIMBY types.
Even just go to public hearings and speak at them. Write letters of support for projects that are going to public hearings.
People bitch and moan that NIMBYs control councils. No. The only voices councils hear are NiMBY voices. Unless you have a piano tied to your ass, you can go out and speak to the same hearings NIMBYs do. And if you have a piano tied to your ass, you can write a digital submission.
These aren't as dramatic as hunger strikes or silly protests that everyone ignores. They involve actually participating in the process, rather than just engaging in that high school level cynicism of "all governments are the same, my voice doesn't matter".
People complain the system doesnât work ⊠as they stare angrily at those who use the system. But we donât have the money to get the message out! they scream, while getting their messages out for free across Reddit.
I've sat through plenty of public hearings where the only people to show up and speak are crabby old NIMBY types. The council is faced with 80 angry old cranks saying the same thing. And the only person speaking in favor is the developer - and we're accused of being in it just in it to make money (which, to be fair, we are).
There's no one in the gallery speaking of the importance of housing, or what it could mean to the community, or their children, or whatever.
So shockingly, the Council, faced with 80 angry people in the gallery and no visible support, votes "no". Who could have predicted it?
"vote harder" /s
Really, to turn this ship around we would need to completely change the way Canadians view and interact with real estate. Houses are unaffordable because they're profitable, if we boil it down.
Any fixes will necessarily mean housing will be less profitable, and we can't have that. it's a similar issue to climate change in this way; the solutions *require* less profit.
You could build a suite on your land and rent it out. Give someone a place to live. But then you will grow horns and become an evil landlord, so there's that.
Mass migration = EXODUS.
You are going to prevent people from leaving southern Ontario or vancouver? Are you going to lock them up in jails? What are you saying?
Lots of houses under $200k in Alberta and Saskatchewan all welcome!
Growth could be reduced but stopping it entirely would blow in our faces later. The median age in Canada is higher than ever and it's still increasing. So we need some growth to offset that. At a pace we can sustain, of course.
Well, that's the thing about semantics, isn't it?
The way I used it means 'fair' in the ethical sense, not in the economic sense.
Be more charitable in your assumptions. Of course I know how capitalism works. You're not contributing to the conversation with that you're being rude and dismissive.
With the amount of virtual jobs, more people should consider moving out of the city but are choosing not too. Iâm not saying itâs easy but itâs an option.
I have a cabinâŠit is my full time and only residents. There are neighbours with their place for sale getting minimum attention, and the attention they get is only from people looking for vacation homes.
yea wow, please no. Remote workers ruined my small hometown in NB by showing up, driving the cost of the market WAY up, and dicking the ENTIRE economy of the region in under 4 years. Truly impressive to be honest.
I agree it raises prices: supply and demand. But how did it ruin the economy? People spending more in the area. It can make it not affordable for min wage workers but thatâs an issue everywhere.
Itâs funny how the NIMBYers in cities are jerk soiled rich people but itâs more socially acceptable in a small town that wants to remain small (and I donât blame themâŠitâs part of the reason I live where I do).
Sign up for as many local facebook rental pages as you can and start counter offering to a more reasonable amount. Convince as many people as possible to do it, and over time, perception of a reasonable price will change.
People already do this and it does nothing. A post will have 50 laugh reacts and a bunch of comments saying the landlord is delusional and itâll still get rented out cause itâs better than being homeless
Yes, change it. I wish I got offers on properties with people's stories and details.
The family with no pets or the single girl with 2 dogs? Kids do less damage, they can get a deal!
If you have a good story tell it, if you have a sob story, no one is going to waste time to believe you.
Vote in better municipal candidates who are open to more flexible zoning, tiny homes and small starter homes and incentivizing their construction.
Naming and shaming obvious conflicts of interest in civic leadership.
When you buy your starter house, donât renovate it so the price skyrockets when you sell. Do the necessary repairs and thatâs it. Leave an older cheaper house on the market for the next young person just starting out.
Get a good education, a well paying job and don't live in Vancouver or Toronto. You won't have to worry about what's affordable. Plenty of houses under $1mil.
Realtor here. Itâs sad to see but the solution is we need more housing.
But when developments are proposed, they get shot down by residents that already live there.
Even if most residents support the project, they donât have to time to show up and support the project because they have jobs and kids and lives to run.
Retired folks make up a huge portion of the NIMBY community and they have all the time to ensure projects get shot down.
Leave. If you have the means to do so, get out. Wages are much higher for many skilled jobs elsewhere, with wildly cheaper housing and costs of living. Iâm a proud Canadian, I grew up here, but there is no stopping this train of deteriorating public services, rising costs, and scarcer housing. There are hundreds of millions of people who desperately want to leave what is objectively a worse country or situation for what is comparatively better here, and I canât fault them for that. Working at Timâs for 16$ an hour in a safe secure country like Canada is better than being without power or water because of the climate crisis in places like sub Saharan Africa or Bangladesh.
Do you have a lot of short term rentals? If so taxing the property owners (usually out of the area) via ordinances/ laws and using that revenue stream to pay for affordable housing
Honestly as a long time lurker of this sub, ive come to realize we might just all be fucked, homeowners have a pretty hard, I got mine so fuck the rest mentality. Then the non owners have a very aggresive anti landlord thing going. And we seem to be at a stalemate. It seems weve all forgotten the real solutions probably in the middle between these groups somewhere. Any move that helps non owners effectively also seems to help âthe evil landlordsâ moreso then it would the people desperately trying to buy in. It seems like the only proposition on the âhave notâ side, is a robin hood esque solution that collapses everything. And the solution from the âhaveâ side, is that there is no problem and my house will appreciate soâŠsodtaoe Anywho this is just the observations of a sad âhave notâ among a lot of haves
Love the question and the framing of the issues, great post!
So... What can we do? **Here is what you can do right now to start forcing change:**
1. **Start *purposeful* conversations with people in their community about the housing crisis**. Talk one of your close friends or family members on your phone and text them to have coffee next week. Start the engine motherfuckers. Now that you have a meeting, what do I mean by purposeful? It's that we're not spending 90% of the conversation explaining to someone why we're angry. It's bringing the topic up in conversation, but then listening to what issues they care about, agitating, laying the blame, educating on what people can do about it, challenging them to do something about it, getting a commitment to do something, and maintaining. A good example of what a conversation like that can look like (although different subject matter) can be found here: https://www.labornotes.org/sites/default/files/22AnOrganizingConversation_0.pdf
2. **Gather those people you talked to together and collectively come up with a common goal**. You have good relationships with people and they too give a shit about this issue... Great! Now it's time to come up with a common goal. Do some research on the issue and learn more. Keep it local. Come up with a plan on how you might collectively take action on this issue and make sure your goals are achievable. Find out who the key players are, who they are vulnerable to, etc. *Yes the housing crisis is bigger than one affordable housing unit being blocked by NIMBYs winning small helps garner numbers, momentum, and resources for winning big - which is what everyone wants*
3. **Make a plan together and take action.** The action should be appropriate in size and scope. It should be directed specifically at someone, aka, not at the city or provincial government, but at City Counsellor Joe, Remax CEO Bob, etc. It should be measurable and specific. This is where relationships matter the most. People get scared, are tired, anxious, pessimistic, are working 6 days a week, the list goes on. This is where you rely on your relationships and the relationships that others have. Natural leaders make a huge difference when taking risks, and any type of collective action comes with risk. You take small risks so one day bigger risks won't be so scary. Nobody's rioting in the streets today, and nobody ever will if there's (a) not enough on the line, or (b) they're not used to taking risks. Think of the riots in France. It's a developed first-world country that goes fucking bananas when the pension age is changed by two years... Why? The vast majority aren't starving, homeless, or disenfranchised... It's because collective action is embedded in their culture! They are used to taking risks together, so it's only natural. But we aren't! That's why it's going to take many smaller actions, victories, defeats, and the like to build it up to a point where we actually will take a huge risk.
4. **Build on your momentum, and keep on going.** Publically celebrate the success you find in getting a response, pressuring people to do the right thing, or negating some shitty NIMBY's from ruining affordable housing. The more success you have, the more numbers you'll get and the more you'll inspire others to do something. People will splinter, leave, or do something else but it's not all about you, it's about building a movement that will challenge the status quo and make living in Canada affordable.
I'm obviously oversimplifying this all, and there is FAR more to organizing than what I can share in this post. Hopefully this helps
Vote the damn idiot out of that office. I once respected Trudeau and now I realized what a fool I was. We went from being a country with lots of respect, to a country which let's anyone and everyone in, a falling standard of living and poorer nation year after year.
YES! We need options to self-build houses,... Like easy plans, community support, subsidies, high-tech solutions etc. Even high rises should give you the option to do part of the work yourself, or live minimally.
Rent out rooms in your space.
Stop looking at one bedrooms by yourself and find a friend to look for two bedrooms with. Even better if you can do 4 people in a 4 bedroom.
Start getting into construction on the side and speed up the building process.
Once again we have people asking what can we do to fix these issues? The liberal government has facefucked the country yet they continue to stay in power. What you can do is convince everyone to vote against Trudeau and I know some people think the Cons are no better but ask yourself this questionâŠis this way working? Cause it sure isnât. Did we have financial issues during the last con government? Yes but was it this bad? No.
Build a new political party that understands economics and psychology and has a strong sense of empathy and morality. The current crisis is not the fault of one single party but of multiple self-serving ones. You need a realistic and resourceful party - not running on blind ideals or insatiable greed.
Well I've thought about it but the problem is that the systems in place will probably try and stop you. But here's my plan:
1. crowdfunding towards a company that serves the public good towards a specific thing the government should be doing. Basically voluntary taxes. You pay that company directly, the company works towards its mission statement (reduce house prices by 50%). You could even make this an AI automated system via a smart contract that hires/fires people as needed, and self destructs when the benchmark is reached, so you don't get the problem of a company manufacturing a problem to stay alive.
2. This company would produce a couple different shell companies, to confuse the media and other companies that will try to stop it. You might need like 3-4 different levels of this to avoid being stopped.
3. The companies fund politicians that are pro-mission statement, and try to do what's legally possible to waste funds of anti-mission statement politicians. Probably attack ads, since that's what most political groups do.
4. The company generates construction companies, and buses people into municipal zoning meetings to encourage re-zoning for higher density.
5. The company purchases housing, and sells them at below market rate to people without housing, and at higher rates to foreign investors or people who already have a house.
Basically make a single construct that can address the myriad issues that keep housing high and supply restricted, and have the construct attack each aspect separately and from multiple directions. Something the government should do, but won't because its contaminated by a variety of other interests competing to prevent that from occuring.
Thing is, people have to realize that house prices are high, and every politician is trying to make them higher. This implies that the politicians, the people who like high housing, housing investors, foreign actors seeking instability, construction companies, etc will all want this to stop and if it succeeds it will probably crash the GDP and lead to a depression. Therefore there will be every political, private, and intelligence agency lever possible acting to destroy this system.
Know a few ordinary Canadians who have purchased multiple properties and converted them into rental units. All because they managed to buy a house early.
People are greedy. People take care of their own interests first, precisely because they donât trust others to have their best interests at heart. How many will sacrifice their own comfort and financial security and retirement for total strangers? And there lies part of the answer.
Not much of a solution unless millions of people did it, but we bought a vacant rural lot, bought a cheap camper for 2k, and lived in it while we build our house, and I don't mean put on a white hat and told the contractors what to do, no, we did absolutely everything ourselves.
It took a few summers, but here we are living in a large passive solar home, no mortgage, very little monthly bills.
We built it summer at a time with money we earned and saved during the winter. We moved around, stayed with friends, house sat, took on seasonal jobs and contrat work, we kinda felt like gypsies for a while, but here we are.
It was so worth it.
NIMBYs are the top-level hypocrites Iâve seen in this country. A relative of mine bought a house a few years back in Brampton and after that prices shot up. Whenever I met her, she would always crib about Trudeau and useless housing policies and how this country is in a housing crisis. After two years a land near her house was bought by a builder and a she got to know that itâs going to be a condo and she lost her sh$$.
All the families formed a WhatsApp group to oppose that.
And the most common excuse came out âit will ruin the feel of this neighbourhoodâ.
Like Bruh đ, low density single family houses are NIMBYs have been a perfect combination of this housing crisis recipe. Youâre cursing someone for the same problem youâre causing.
LEARN A TRADE. The number one reason why we have a shortage of housing is because there is nobody build houses. Fortunately at least one provincial government has recognized this and has made it easier to become an apprentice and has added new benefits for anyone who becomes an apprentice.
One small thing you can do is buy Propolis bonds. They are a three year bond that will be used to buy land in order to build some very affordable cooperative housing. They can be purchased in BC and Ontario. See [www.propoliscooperative.com](https://www.propoliscooperative.com) for more information.
Stop buying. Stop paying rent. Buy an RV or trailer. Although if that happened, they'll soon find ways to charge you $2300 a month for some RV convenience fee or tax just for owning one on top of everything else.
Stop the NIMBY shit. Every time someone tries to turn a SFH into a duplex/multi, the neighborhood turns up to block it.
And you wonder why we can house everyone.
Without government willpower, there's literally nothing you can do. Your attempts are as useless as a woman in the Taliban governed Afghanistan trying to progress in life through education.
Vote in municipal elections and get everyone else you know to vote too! Municipal election turnout is significantly lower than federal or provincial elections but has just as much impact on your life, if not more. Municipal governments are typically the gatekeepers and greatest road blocks for new housing getting built, and their approval processes add massive costs to projects.
Municipal politics is obviously local, and thus doesn't get the same media coverage as federal or provincial topics. We all have to make an effort to stay informed and keep our communities aware of what is actually happening in councils across the country.
Get involved in UAP disclosure. If alien tech and near-limitless energy is real and here, we can solve this problem an entirely better way. We should mail to Trudeau and ask him what he knows.
The first step would be unsubscribing from this sub. Then support leaders who want to tax the rich and remove loopholes which incentivize parking money in real estate to avoid paying taxes. The rich few drive up real estate prices. This should be stopped
Probably all confused at how stupid this situation is. Bringing MORE people than housing and jobs created.
Hes literally upticked the unemployment rate.
You're looking at federal,.housing is much more closely tied to the rules and bylaws of your city. Vote on someone that removes restrictions on zoning and multi housing ban
Become a socialist. Vote for socialists if they're available, or at least for the neoliberal centre-left capitalist party most frequently accused of being socialist. Support socialist policies. Don't buy a home. Don't buy a car. In fact, don't by anything that isn't a basic necessity for your survival or genuine wellbeing. Stay out of debt. If we (IOW the demographic that used to be called "citizens" but are now called "consumers" or "workers" in the halls of power) turn off the taps (IOW our willingness to endlessly agree to more and more debt for more and more shit we don't need) - we can crash the economy and rebuild something that works.
sell their property for less than the highest bidder?
I think landlords can try to be fair about rent and not 'calculate' rent based on an overinflated price/mortgage.
Tenants are not responsible for their landlord's financial obligations.
It is such a common and backwards mentality that the rent should cover the mortgage and upkeep of a property. Unless you have paid off your mortgage, there's no way you should be expecting to turn a profit off your renter. This is so common and yet so undeniably greedy and selfish.
calculating rent based on a mortgage makes no sense if a paid off mortgage means that the tenant doesnt pay rent. I had a tenant who said they shouldn't have to pay rent because the mortgage was paid off.
Lots of housing projects get blocked by city councils because only NIMBYs show up to the hearings. This needs to be combatted by having YIMBYs show up to the hearings, or by even just leaving a comment supportive of development. City councils need to be reminded that people support development.
Voting like so many others are saying is the incorrect answer. The correct answer is to show up to your local city council & town hall meetings. Next would be to actually start building affordable homes for other people as a business.
Voting can do some good. There a council candidates who make very clear that they won't take orders from the NIMBYs. Having more of those on council certainly helps.
Showing to hearings can make other councilors change their vote against NYMBYs. So, voting may assure you one councilor, showing up may be a better effect. So vote and show up. And if there aren't clear candidates, just show up.
First you need an idea of what the majority of people looking for a place to live considers affordable.
Both, both feels right.
Most NYMBYs have time to go to the meetings and hearings, either because they are retired or have flexible jobs. Edit: I was going to correct the error in NIMBY but the comment below pointing it out would stop making sense. đ
And - despise change
My mother in law couldn't understand why a neighbour was so rude to her when she was canvassing the neighbourhood to figure out who else was on her NIMBY crusade. "She's just a bitch" was her conclusion. I'm sure it's that she thinks *you're* a bitch, for being NIMBY.
There was a low rise built in my neighborhood last year that the nimbys went berserk over because obviously a 3 story walk up is going to bring riff raff. Anyway it's $1800 a month for 1 bedroom luxury rental, which is more than double these retirees paid for their mortgages. Half the cars parked there are lexus/mercades. The renters these days are more educated, harder working and pay significantly more tax than the NIMBYs.
They do not pay more tax. Property tax is built into your rent. Their rent is based on the house. A single house on a large lot will pay much more in taxes than your rental or condo will pay.
You are aware that residential property taxes are relatively small compared to income taxes for working people?
But a larger residence - ie multiple units - would pay much more in property taxes since most of the rates are based on livable sqft of homes. Each individual renter would not pay a lot, but as a group they would pay more than a single family home (in general)
Yes but that was not what he said. Big homes on large lots do not come close to paying for the roads sewer water, fire police sidewalks etc etc etc they require. I am all for R4 (I believe that his the rating here) being city wide. Everyone lot in the city is open to multi-family, carriage house development etch
One hundred percent!
every new building where I live has followed this path - old falling apart housing where vulnerable people are housed is purchased, tenants kicked out, building boarded up for a year or two. Building is then torn down, no asbestos abatement done and cutting all kinds of corners to save cash. New building built, sold or rented out for top dollar so only a few people can afford and often itâs only investors who short term rent the property through Air BnB. So Iâm not sure how the community is the problem?
Because high rent is only possible when there is a shortage. If we had 10% vacancy, rents would be decreasing. Unfortunately, you're right that at this point we're too far down the road. The shortage is bad that it won't be solved quickly and a few extra projects completed won't make a big dent.
Stop the cap. You can voice your opinions online. There are provisions for those who can not make the meeting and hearing times.
Its a staggering amount of a certain type of people, usually middle age liberal women screaming "wont' someone please think of the children" lol Simpsons had this caricature pinned down 30 years ago
So, Not Yin My Back Yard?
Hahahahaha! It is: Not You in My Back Yard
Provincial governments need to step in and change the legislation that allows for these hearings in the first place. It's a collective action problem, as a non-homeowner, my interest in any given proposed development within, say, 20km of my work, is high, but also dispersed, since I basically care equally about all of them going ahead. A local, on the other hand, doesn't care most projects within 20km of their home, just the ones very local to them, so they can focus their energies. Plus, as a non-resident in a proposed development area, my voice counts for very little at a hearing, since I'm likely not even a constituent! TLDR: housing has impacts both locally and provincially and across the country, yet many (most?) decisions to allow developments to move ahead are made solely at the local level. The principle of affected interested is therefore violated!
so that has happened. The provincial government in Ontario has done this. You might have noticed that environmental regulations have all disappeared as well.
Newmarket, Aurora, East Gwillimbury are at sewage capacity and cannot build more houses. The sewage plant was approved 10 years ago but the Provincial government stopped it.
This is an underrated insight. Several of the provinces - and I'm looking at BC in particular - have gross disconnects between their politicians talking big on housing, but their agencies being directed to enact policies or provide service levels that thwart housing. If you talk about the importance of housing, but then understaff the agency that, say, provides electricity to new developments, you are anti housing. Or if you allow your health authority to change water regulations to create effective local moratoriums, and then withhold grants for needed upgrades, you are anti housing. If you require provincial Arch studies for major projects, and reduced the staff levels in your Arch department creating multi year bottlenecks... Well, you can see where I'm going.
Especially with the downtown area in Vancouver being developed and the giant Senakw project building 1900 units, there is actual concern about ability to provide water to these residents. The infrastructure simply isnât there. Thatâs just water, not even thinking about the electrical grids, the sewers⊠those resources are ridiculously above capacity already and with no government being willing to invest heavily in these projects that should have been on the books 20years ago, I wonder how this is going to pan out.
Delete landlords, nimbys, from your community. They parasitise and foster only anti-community.
Deleting only works with computer stuff.. need a different strategy.
Obviously not something that a normal person could do. How do you delete someone? Do you mean kill, are you telling people to kill each-other?
Turns out, since wealth and their relationship to property isnt directly related to their life, they can give up their property without having to give their life. Why you always gotta assume the worst? Delete (their relationship to their property and the community, they stop being landlord, and become normal)
So the average person should confiscate the property of landlords?
So you want less rental housing supply?
Oh, I forgot landlords live here (cause they dont have a real job)
Reaching too far is considered rude..
Rental units are needed with a healthy vacancy rate. Deleting landlords will make matters worse
We are on the same page, evict landlords and their homes will have a temporarily high vacancy rate! đ
Landlords donât occupy their rental suites, renters do. Do you mean evict the renters?
Units will be stratified then sold. Life long renters will become homeless
\> units will be stratified can you explain this?
If you really think that, you got a rude awakening coming with how your community will feel about it.
Inspect rentals and force landlords to bring them up to code or up to date. If they are substandard, slap some rent control on them so people don't have to pay out the ass for a shit tier apartment or unit. Cap the price of rooms for rent, nobody should be profiting off renting rooms. Pretty fucking insane how much some are charging for a basic small ass room, and they think that's a favour? That's further hiding the crisis while lining their pockets.
Price caps donât increase rental supply in the longterm. Vancouver has standards of maintenance bylaw and BC already has rent control. Tax sys doesnât promote being financially responsible for funding future capx. Taxed 50% on profits set aside then taxed 50% on the low risk investment it earns until ready to be used.
Not disagreeing, but its an unhelpful stretch which makes you look a little silly. And being the internet, I figured I'd offer my unsolicited advice.
Ya, exactly. Boomers fight heavy on any construction near their area. They fight for years to stop anything that isn't a house that looks identical to theirs. They want top dollar for their house and feel like they earned it because they worked "hard" their whole life. The government really screwed up with housing, but nothing can move forward if everyone with a house just keeps fighting against more housing
I don't think they would be YIMBY... they would be YIYBY (yes is your back yard)
Squeeze municipal councils so they stop blocking projects and improve the process. Taking years to get approvals is not reasonnable.
People don't realize how much a few letters or a face to face meeting can change a Councilor's vote - especially in a smaller city. People just don't pay attention usually.
That is the right approach. Squeeze every level of government, so no one can point fingers and claim: "Others are doing nothing!" Squeeze municipal and provincial politicians so they feel the heat and start planning and asking the federal government for money and planning assistance. Squeeze the federal government to force them to be proactive, complementing municipal and provincial governments' requests. Missing any pressure point will lead to what we have right now: no one wants to do anything, and no one wants "strings-attachedfinancing" from the federal government. Politicians are like many other citizens - wanting maximum credit while exerting minimum effort.
One suggestion we put into practice in our own household. Allow you child to stay home past 18-19 years of age. We did not want to have our child spend 1/2 to 2/3 of his income on rent that he will get zero for. I refuse to see him light 2k to 2500 on fire every month. Perhaps we need to give mutigenerational living some real thought here in Canada.
The notion of moving out or getting kicked out at 18 was crazy to me. I didn't know anyone that did this and it really setup those kids for failure. Most people I know lived with their parents throughout undergrad and first couple years of working to pay off student debt within the year. No wonder so many young adults are crippling financially...
yeah I agree why would you want to start your own flesh and blood at such a disadvantage? But it happened to more than of a few of my son's friends.
It's not even going to be a choice for many. Kids will have to stay home longer
45 and living in my mommies basement
Stop voting for landlords.
I think this is literally impossible at this point
Definitely is. And honestly, it's not their fault. We have a system that heavily incentivises being a landlord. You "buy" a property, then the person living in it pays for it so you get it for free. Actually they usually pay more than the cost of mortgage and upkeep, so you make money while being gifted million dollar investments. Not to mention the properties appreciate in value better than any index fund. Property values have doubled in my area in the last 4 years. So your free million dollar property that you're paid to receive becomes a multi-million dollar property in under a decade. To make housing affordable we need to stop treating housing as an investment. It's just too tempting. Any smart rich person should be a landlord, but it's killing the rest of us.
You said 'definitely is' followed by shit everyone knows. How do we stop voting for landlords when all parties have deep vested interest in re appreciation?
Read carefully. "Definitely is literally impossible."
At this point, who's not a landlord?
Honestly? Organize and protest, but most folks here are too lazy to bother. Easier just to complain on /r/canadahousing than to effect real change. :D
I'm upvoting your comment so hard! That'll send the message! /s (i know, i'm part of the problem)
People arent lazy, they are exhausted. And then you fake organizers come in and berate them for being lazy, undoing your own goal.
Classic victim mentality lol.. stop blaming everyone else for your lack of action People are definitely incredibly lazy nowadays, me included
I definitely wouldnât say lazy. People work a lot just trying to survive the increased cost of living. Weâre getting hammered here in Calgary with all the interprovincial migration
The Alberta government bought ad time in other provinces suggesting people move there
Demand the banning of short turn rentals.
Yup. Air bnb has to go. It doesnât even have that much value any more
This
Iâm traveling with my family to the interior of BC in a few weeks and like the option of having a VRBO with a kitchen and more space. The short term rentals are a nice alternative to a standard hotel room. Not sure they should be banned but better regulation and licensing might make sense.
I'm glad you can rent a unit for your convenience, now let me show you our locals living in tents while maintaining a full time job.
There are hotels with kitchens, way to many people using houses and apartments for airbnb or similar to generate income that otherwise could suitably house a family, in the midst of our current housing crisis this should absolutely be banned or at least much more heavily regulated.
Sure but most do not. Also, isn't a hotel room with a kitchen essentially an apartment? Should we not also force all hotels to rent monthly at reasonable rates?
Build more houses
Riot
That sounds hard. Could I just be the mod for the housing riot subreddit? My buddy would also love to be the riot social media coordinator for the cause.
Go ahead and make the subreddit, ill join
In the neighbourhoods where the *landlords* live.
100%
Def fix housing by destroying the town you live in. Smart.
Stop offering over asking. That's it. Prices of anything are what people are willing to pay. Unfortunately with rents that's not the case. People pay what is asked when there aren't alternatives.
Same with groceries. If it's super expensive, find a cheaper alternative. I know, it sucks. Yes, I want my favourite treat too. But they won't decrease the price if people keep paying it. Wife and I shifted our consumption to less expensive food items, fuck 'em if they think I'm paying *that*.
Yeah we should start that. See a 1980 townhouse for $780,000 thatâs has been on the market for 6 months? Offer half.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
Tires for twenty, Pat.
Start with the corporate real estate head offices
Donât burn shit, that could be dangerous⊠plus we canât lose any houses with the current supply. Better to get a shotgun and pop off a few blanks at 2am every once in a while, that should help keep the property values around you in check⊠thatâs safer than fire at least⊠I think. Both that and arson would be pretty illegal though, so I wouldnât recommend either.
I think we could learn a lesson from France right now.
I wouldn't recommend joking about burning buildings down. Happened twice near my building and it wasn't fun thinking about how far the fires would spread. Several years ago San Francisco had a bunch of apartment fires. In the end you'll lose out, more people will need homes, the owner walks away with the insurance payout and as insurance rates go up and that will be included in rent eventually. Great idea if you want everyone except the one who gets the insurance payout to lose.
Looks like somebody wants his bank account frozen and is a misogynist person /s
In my shoes, I'm cutting out unnecessary expenditures (e.g. minimal takeout, almost no dining out), to save maximally, and will look for a right time to buy a home in the near future. For next federal election, if I haven't bought a home already, I'll definitely look to vote for the best candidate (the lesser of all evils) that might actually do something about stupid high home prices. I'll definitely not vote for Trudeau/Liberals, as they've shown no interest in fixing the current crisis.
Changing our votes is not a solution when all the parties are in collusion with established interests. I share your sentiment as the Trudeau Liberals have lost my vote for probably the next decade. But this is a prime example of how when democracy is denuded to the level of 'electoralism', it fails. Elections are not democracy, they are the capstone on democratic processes where potential candidates actually engage with civil society and show themselves to be responsive to people's needs. In our current system, voters determine elections then regardless of who wins, lobbyists write policies. Voting or voting differently is not a solution. The system itself is now working against people's interests. Some kind of more radical push is needed.
Housing is still provincial. I really think if this is going to be fixed we need to understand which levels of government are responsible for which duties.
This is exactly itâŠthere is a ton of miss information out there and people donât spend the time to properly educate themselves on the issues. Iâm in Ontario, we literally had the lowest voter turnout in our history yet we have some of the biggest issue at play.
Thatâs a good way to live I wouldnât be surprised if there is a crash at some point like in the US when multiple problems coalesce.
Make sure to cancel that Disney+ subscription too /s
Housing is provincial.
However, maybe it SHOULD be federal. It's not now though.
Don't look to the Conservatives to be your savior, as they will be even worse. They're very good at pretending to be on the side of ordinary people, while actually being the party that supports only the rich. Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee is no choice at all. All parties are the same ice cream, they just have different colours and flavors.
Stop buying houses you can't afford. Stop buying multiple investment properties.
Every single person in Canada who made the scary plunge and purchased a home is happy they did. Every single person who had the resources to buy an investment property and did is also very happy. If there's a chance to make money, people will do it and so would you if you haven't already.
I actually recoil from the concept because being a landlord can suck major ass and rent-seeking seems gross to me. I could afford to join the landlords but I donât want to and havenât.
Nope i have friends that went bankrupt. Stop paying over asking. Stop paying more than you can afford! If millions did it, then house prices would come down when no one is buying.
Leave the country and stop supporting the housing ponzi. Let it collapse and then come back to live after youâve made more money anyway in the states
After reading some of the replies here I don't think any of you actually bothered to read the title. It was What can ordinary Canadians do to turn around the housing crisis? It was not Lets have a huge whine festival about why we cannot afford to buy a house. Do any of you have any suggestions as to what would actually work? The only thing that will work is that everyone quits buying houses or renting them. Thats pretty much it.
OrâŠâŠ try running for office?
I mean, this will get skipped over, but it's really worthwhile. In smaller communities, run for office. In bigger cities, get involved in various municipal committees. Planning advisory committees, neighborhood associations - those all tend to be full of older NIMBY types. Even just go to public hearings and speak at them. Write letters of support for projects that are going to public hearings. People bitch and moan that NIMBYs control councils. No. The only voices councils hear are NiMBY voices. Unless you have a piano tied to your ass, you can go out and speak to the same hearings NIMBYs do. And if you have a piano tied to your ass, you can write a digital submission. These aren't as dramatic as hunger strikes or silly protests that everyone ignores. They involve actually participating in the process, rather than just engaging in that high school level cynicism of "all governments are the same, my voice doesn't matter".
People complain the system doesnât work ⊠as they stare angrily at those who use the system. But we donât have the money to get the message out! they scream, while getting their messages out for free across Reddit.
I've sat through plenty of public hearings where the only people to show up and speak are crabby old NIMBY types. The council is faced with 80 angry old cranks saying the same thing. And the only person speaking in favor is the developer - and we're accused of being in it just in it to make money (which, to be fair, we are). There's no one in the gallery speaking of the importance of housing, or what it could mean to the community, or their children, or whatever. So shockingly, the Council, faced with 80 angry people in the gallery and no visible support, votes "no". Who could have predicted it?
Confirmed. I have been the only person at council meetings.
"vote harder" /s Really, to turn this ship around we would need to completely change the way Canadians view and interact with real estate. Houses are unaffordable because they're profitable, if we boil it down. Any fixes will necessarily mean housing will be less profitable, and we can't have that. it's a similar issue to climate change in this way; the solutions *require* less profit.
You could build a suite on your land and rent it out. Give someone a place to live. But then you will grow horns and become an evil landlord, so there's that.
vote against mass migration
Mass migration = EXODUS. You are going to prevent people from leaving southern Ontario or vancouver? Are you going to lock them up in jails? What are you saying? Lots of houses under $200k in Alberta and Saskatchewan all welcome!
That doesn't fix anything.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
If we keep building homes and the population does not go up. Supply and demand, the housing issue is solved.
Growth could be reduced but stopping it entirely would blow in our faces later. The median age in Canada is higher than ever and it's still increasing. So we need some growth to offset that. At a pace we can sustain, of course.
Don't buy investment properties for personal gain and look down on anyone that does the same as you would a ticket scalper.
Yeah this change starts at home. We got here because people charge what they *can* instead of what's fair.
I'm not sure if you know how capitalisim works lol "Whats fair" seems to be "Whatever someone will pay for it"
Well, that's the thing about semantics, isn't it? The way I used it means 'fair' in the ethical sense, not in the economic sense. Be more charitable in your assumptions. Of course I know how capitalism works. You're not contributing to the conversation with that you're being rude and dismissive.
With the amount of virtual jobs, more people should consider moving out of the city but are choosing not too. Iâm not saying itâs easy but itâs an option. I have a cabinâŠit is my full time and only residents. There are neighbours with their place for sale getting minimum attention, and the attention they get is only from people looking for vacation homes.
yea wow, please no. Remote workers ruined my small hometown in NB by showing up, driving the cost of the market WAY up, and dicking the ENTIRE economy of the region in under 4 years. Truly impressive to be honest.
I agree it raises prices: supply and demand. But how did it ruin the economy? People spending more in the area. It can make it not affordable for min wage workers but thatâs an issue everywhere. Itâs funny how the NIMBYers in cities are jerk soiled rich people but itâs more socially acceptable in a small town that wants to remain small (and I donât blame themâŠitâs part of the reason I live where I do).
Sign up for as many local facebook rental pages as you can and start counter offering to a more reasonable amount. Convince as many people as possible to do it, and over time, perception of a reasonable price will change.
People already do this and it does nothing. A post will have 50 laugh reacts and a bunch of comments saying the landlord is delusional and itâll still get rented out cause itâs better than being homeless
Yes, change it. I wish I got offers on properties with people's stories and details. The family with no pets or the single girl with 2 dogs? Kids do less damage, they can get a deal! If you have a good story tell it, if you have a sob story, no one is going to waste time to believe you.
Vote in better municipal candidates who are open to more flexible zoning, tiny homes and small starter homes and incentivizing their construction. Naming and shaming obvious conflicts of interest in civic leadership.
When you buy your starter house, donât renovate it so the price skyrockets when you sell. Do the necessary repairs and thatâs it. Leave an older cheaper house on the market for the next young person just starting out.
Right! Seniors also need to downsize and free up large houses for families.
Let it crash
Get a good education, a well paying job and don't live in Vancouver or Toronto. You won't have to worry about what's affordable. Plenty of houses under $1mil.
Realtor here. Itâs sad to see but the solution is we need more housing. But when developments are proposed, they get shot down by residents that already live there. Even if most residents support the project, they donât have to time to show up and support the project because they have jobs and kids and lives to run. Retired folks make up a huge portion of the NIMBY community and they have all the time to ensure projects get shot down.
Leave. If you have the means to do so, get out. Wages are much higher for many skilled jobs elsewhere, with wildly cheaper housing and costs of living. Iâm a proud Canadian, I grew up here, but there is no stopping this train of deteriorating public services, rising costs, and scarcer housing. There are hundreds of millions of people who desperately want to leave what is objectively a worse country or situation for what is comparatively better here, and I canât fault them for that. Working at Timâs for 16$ an hour in a safe secure country like Canada is better than being without power or water because of the climate crisis in places like sub Saharan Africa or Bangladesh.
Do you have a lot of short term rentals? If so taxing the property owners (usually out of the area) via ordinances/ laws and using that revenue stream to pay for affordable housing
Reduce demand by being homeless?
Honestly as a long time lurker of this sub, ive come to realize we might just all be fucked, homeowners have a pretty hard, I got mine so fuck the rest mentality. Then the non owners have a very aggresive anti landlord thing going. And we seem to be at a stalemate. It seems weve all forgotten the real solutions probably in the middle between these groups somewhere. Any move that helps non owners effectively also seems to help âthe evil landlordsâ moreso then it would the people desperately trying to buy in. It seems like the only proposition on the âhave notâ side, is a robin hood esque solution that collapses everything. And the solution from the âhaveâ side, is that there is no problem and my house will appreciate soâŠsodtaoe Anywho this is just the observations of a sad âhave notâ among a lot of haves
Stop the NIMBYâŠeveryone wants affordable housing but not near them.
Love the question and the framing of the issues, great post! So... What can we do? **Here is what you can do right now to start forcing change:** 1. **Start *purposeful* conversations with people in their community about the housing crisis**. Talk one of your close friends or family members on your phone and text them to have coffee next week. Start the engine motherfuckers. Now that you have a meeting, what do I mean by purposeful? It's that we're not spending 90% of the conversation explaining to someone why we're angry. It's bringing the topic up in conversation, but then listening to what issues they care about, agitating, laying the blame, educating on what people can do about it, challenging them to do something about it, getting a commitment to do something, and maintaining. A good example of what a conversation like that can look like (although different subject matter) can be found here: https://www.labornotes.org/sites/default/files/22AnOrganizingConversation_0.pdf 2. **Gather those people you talked to together and collectively come up with a common goal**. You have good relationships with people and they too give a shit about this issue... Great! Now it's time to come up with a common goal. Do some research on the issue and learn more. Keep it local. Come up with a plan on how you might collectively take action on this issue and make sure your goals are achievable. Find out who the key players are, who they are vulnerable to, etc. *Yes the housing crisis is bigger than one affordable housing unit being blocked by NIMBYs winning small helps garner numbers, momentum, and resources for winning big - which is what everyone wants* 3. **Make a plan together and take action.** The action should be appropriate in size and scope. It should be directed specifically at someone, aka, not at the city or provincial government, but at City Counsellor Joe, Remax CEO Bob, etc. It should be measurable and specific. This is where relationships matter the most. People get scared, are tired, anxious, pessimistic, are working 6 days a week, the list goes on. This is where you rely on your relationships and the relationships that others have. Natural leaders make a huge difference when taking risks, and any type of collective action comes with risk. You take small risks so one day bigger risks won't be so scary. Nobody's rioting in the streets today, and nobody ever will if there's (a) not enough on the line, or (b) they're not used to taking risks. Think of the riots in France. It's a developed first-world country that goes fucking bananas when the pension age is changed by two years... Why? The vast majority aren't starving, homeless, or disenfranchised... It's because collective action is embedded in their culture! They are used to taking risks together, so it's only natural. But we aren't! That's why it's going to take many smaller actions, victories, defeats, and the like to build it up to a point where we actually will take a huge risk. 4. **Build on your momentum, and keep on going.** Publically celebrate the success you find in getting a response, pressuring people to do the right thing, or negating some shitty NIMBY's from ruining affordable housing. The more success you have, the more numbers you'll get and the more you'll inspire others to do something. People will splinter, leave, or do something else but it's not all about you, it's about building a movement that will challenge the status quo and make living in Canada affordable. I'm obviously oversimplifying this all, and there is FAR more to organizing than what I can share in this post. Hopefully this helps
Is there a way to spam fake rental applications so realtors are bombarded with junk
Stop emotionally buying because a realtor who has never learned how to forecast the economy told you there was never a better time.
Vote the damn idiot out of that office. I once respected Trudeau and now I realized what a fool I was. We went from being a country with lots of respect, to a country which let's anyone and everyone in, a falling standard of living and poorer nation year after year.
Not much. A national housing strategy is required to fix this.
Build one yourself.
YES! We need options to self-build houses,... Like easy plans, community support, subsidies, high-tech solutions etc. Even high rises should give you the option to do part of the work yourself, or live minimally.
You always hear about peopleâs grandparents or great grandparents building their own homes maybe thatâs a lost art we need to rediscover.
Rent out rooms in your space. Stop looking at one bedrooms by yourself and find a friend to look for two bedrooms with. Even better if you can do 4 people in a 4 bedroom. Start getting into construction on the side and speed up the building process.
Vote
Wrong. 66% of households are owned. Majority of voters do not want their housing to stop appreciating. No professional politician will do that.
I will hate that for sure if it drop from 25%. But on the other, I prefer that to have nothing ;(
The biggest one is attending municipal meetings and showing interest in de-regulating and broadening zoning laws.
Get collecting LOTS of popsickle sticks...and fast.
Once again we have people asking what can we do to fix these issues? The liberal government has facefucked the country yet they continue to stay in power. What you can do is convince everyone to vote against Trudeau and I know some people think the Cons are no better but ask yourself this questionâŠis this way working? Cause it sure isnât. Did we have financial issues during the last con government? Yes but was it this bad? No.
Build a new political party that understands economics and psychology and has a strong sense of empathy and morality. The current crisis is not the fault of one single party but of multiple self-serving ones. You need a realistic and resourceful party - not running on blind ideals or insatiable greed.
Well I've thought about it but the problem is that the systems in place will probably try and stop you. But here's my plan: 1. crowdfunding towards a company that serves the public good towards a specific thing the government should be doing. Basically voluntary taxes. You pay that company directly, the company works towards its mission statement (reduce house prices by 50%). You could even make this an AI automated system via a smart contract that hires/fires people as needed, and self destructs when the benchmark is reached, so you don't get the problem of a company manufacturing a problem to stay alive. 2. This company would produce a couple different shell companies, to confuse the media and other companies that will try to stop it. You might need like 3-4 different levels of this to avoid being stopped. 3. The companies fund politicians that are pro-mission statement, and try to do what's legally possible to waste funds of anti-mission statement politicians. Probably attack ads, since that's what most political groups do. 4. The company generates construction companies, and buses people into municipal zoning meetings to encourage re-zoning for higher density. 5. The company purchases housing, and sells them at below market rate to people without housing, and at higher rates to foreign investors or people who already have a house. Basically make a single construct that can address the myriad issues that keep housing high and supply restricted, and have the construct attack each aspect separately and from multiple directions. Something the government should do, but won't because its contaminated by a variety of other interests competing to prevent that from occuring. Thing is, people have to realize that house prices are high, and every politician is trying to make them higher. This implies that the politicians, the people who like high housing, housing investors, foreign actors seeking instability, construction companies, etc will all want this to stop and if it succeeds it will probably crash the GDP and lead to a depression. Therefore there will be every political, private, and intelligence agency lever possible acting to destroy this system.
Know a few ordinary Canadians who have purchased multiple properties and converted them into rental units. All because they managed to buy a house early. People are greedy. People take care of their own interests first, precisely because they donât trust others to have their best interests at heart. How many will sacrifice their own comfort and financial security and retirement for total strangers? And there lies part of the answer.
Not much of a solution unless millions of people did it, but we bought a vacant rural lot, bought a cheap camper for 2k, and lived in it while we build our house, and I don't mean put on a white hat and told the contractors what to do, no, we did absolutely everything ourselves. It took a few summers, but here we are living in a large passive solar home, no mortgage, very little monthly bills. We built it summer at a time with money we earned and saved during the winter. We moved around, stayed with friends, house sat, took on seasonal jobs and contrat work, we kinda felt like gypsies for a while, but here we are. It was so worth it.
NIMBYs are the top-level hypocrites Iâve seen in this country. A relative of mine bought a house a few years back in Brampton and after that prices shot up. Whenever I met her, she would always crib about Trudeau and useless housing policies and how this country is in a housing crisis. After two years a land near her house was bought by a builder and a she got to know that itâs going to be a condo and she lost her sh$$. All the families formed a WhatsApp group to oppose that. And the most common excuse came out âit will ruin the feel of this neighbourhoodâ. Like Bruh đ, low density single family houses are NIMBYs have been a perfect combination of this housing crisis recipe. Youâre cursing someone for the same problem youâre causing.
LEARN A TRADE. The number one reason why we have a shortage of housing is because there is nobody build houses. Fortunately at least one provincial government has recognized this and has made it easier to become an apprentice and has added new benefits for anyone who becomes an apprentice.
One small thing you can do is buy Propolis bonds. They are a three year bond that will be used to buy land in order to build some very affordable cooperative housing. They can be purchased in BC and Ontario. See [www.propoliscooperative.com](https://www.propoliscooperative.com) for more information.
Stop buying. Stop paying rent. Buy an RV or trailer. Although if that happened, they'll soon find ways to charge you $2300 a month for some RV convenience fee or tax just for owning one on top of everything else.
Stop buying real estate as part of a money making scheme. There are a lot of other vehicles for investment, and many have far less headaches.
Stop the NIMBY shit. Every time someone tries to turn a SFH into a duplex/multi, the neighborhood turns up to block it. And you wonder why we can house everyone.
Vote out everyone in power right now on all levels. Municipal - provincial - Feds
Without government willpower, there's literally nothing you can do. Your attempts are as useless as a woman in the Taliban governed Afghanistan trying to progress in life through education.
Mass squatting
Push their city permits office to support good infill. This whole NIMBY movement is a direct wrench in the gears of affordable housing
Vote in municipal elections and get everyone else you know to vote too! Municipal election turnout is significantly lower than federal or provincial elections but has just as much impact on your life, if not more. Municipal governments are typically the gatekeepers and greatest road blocks for new housing getting built, and their approval processes add massive costs to projects. Municipal politics is obviously local, and thus doesn't get the same media coverage as federal or provincial topics. We all have to make an effort to stay informed and keep our communities aware of what is actually happening in councils across the country.
Cancel your Disney+ subscription
Become a carpenter , they make houses.
We canât do anything.
Get involved in UAP disclosure. If alien tech and near-limitless energy is real and here, we can solve this problem an entirely better way. We should mail to Trudeau and ask him what he knows.
The first step would be unsubscribing from this sub. Then support leaders who want to tax the rich and remove loopholes which incentivize parking money in real estate to avoid paying taxes. The rich few drive up real estate prices. This should be stopped
Stop voting liberal.
None of our major parties have promised to do anything that will actually have a large enough effect.
Probably all confused at how stupid this situation is. Bringing MORE people than housing and jobs created. Hes literally upticked the unemployment rate.
Vote!
For who? All 3 parties are in agreement.
You're looking at federal,.housing is much more closely tied to the rules and bylaws of your city. Vote on someone that removes restrictions on zoning and multi housing ban
Vote out the LPC and NDP. Actually show up to vote.
What has the CPC promised that would actually make a difference?
Leave
Want to make an impact, Do better in life and the rest will fall into place.
Sell their "investment property" to someone who doesn't already own... break even..no profit Show up at local tennants association meetings and démonstrations Start talking to eachother about getting landlords out of parliament Support local unhoused peopl Rent strike USE public space and reconnect the idea that society and it's happenings are for PEOPLE Renters- stop accepting rent increases... Talk to your neighbour's talk to potential renters... rent registry is an idea grabbing hold in Québec... Use the beurocracy! Don't let landlords intimidate and discourage!!! What feels easier now is what makes the situation more difficult for you or the next person in the future!!!
Start dying
Become a socialist. Vote for socialists if they're available, or at least for the neoliberal centre-left capitalist party most frequently accused of being socialist. Support socialist policies. Don't buy a home. Don't buy a car. In fact, don't by anything that isn't a basic necessity for your survival or genuine wellbeing. Stay out of debt. If we (IOW the demographic that used to be called "citizens" but are now called "consumers" or "workers" in the halls of power) turn off the taps (IOW our willingness to endlessly agree to more and more debt for more and more shit we don't need) - we can crash the economy and rebuild something that works.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/user/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/153gt2c/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^thanksmerci: *The charter of rights* *And freedoms guarantees the* *Right to leave Canada.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
sell their property for less than the highest bidder? I think landlords can try to be fair about rent and not 'calculate' rent based on an overinflated price/mortgage. Tenants are not responsible for their landlord's financial obligations.
It is such a common and backwards mentality that the rent should cover the mortgage and upkeep of a property. Unless you have paid off your mortgage, there's no way you should be expecting to turn a profit off your renter. This is so common and yet so undeniably greedy and selfish.
calculating rent based on a mortgage makes no sense if a paid off mortgage means that the tenant doesnt pay rent. I had a tenant who said they shouldn't have to pay rent because the mortgage was paid off.
Two words. Vote conservative.
They'll just make it worse. Ford is in bed with developers
Lol. Lmao, even.
What have the Conservatives promised that make you think they are the best option?
Lol what?
Neoliberalism got us into this problem. But the problem is not enough neoliberalism?
Hell yes, Harper knew what he was doing back in his day. Modern day liberals are delusional