Federal departments tasked with curbing chronic homelessness in Canada don’t know whether the billions of dollars in public money they’ve spent have helped get people into homes, Canada’s auditor general reported Tuesday.
Auditor General Karen Hogan found that the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Infrastructure Canada have failed to collect enough data on their programs, which are designed to connect the most vulnerable people with homes.
These two agencies are largely responsible for implementing the federal government’s National Housing Strategy, which aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 50% by fiscal year 2027-28.
But without data, there is no way to know whether the government is getting good value for its money or whether the 50 percent target will ever be met, the AG said.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill, Hogan said the government really doesn’t know whether all the housing-related money spent so far — about $4.5 billion on six different programs — has been useful.
WATCH: Federal government failed to collect data on homeless programs: AG
Feds Failed to Collect Data on Vulnerable Housing Programs: AG
Auditor General Karen Hogan says the federal government had a goal of reducing homelessness by 50 percent, but had little or no data on the effectiveness of its programs.
“They have a huge data gap. They’re not collecting the information,” he said. “A data-driven strategy is a great solution.”
One of the government’s key programs to get people off the streets is the “coming home” program, which is administered by Infrastructure Canada.
The department spent $1.36 billion between 2019 and 2021, but, according to Hogan, “the department did not know whether chronic homelessness and homelessness had increased or decreased since 2019 as a result of this investment.”
Based on the limited data available, the AG found that the number of shelter users who are chronically homeless has increased since the housing strategy was launched in 2016.
Some 29,900 people used a shelter in 2019-20, 11.3% more than the 26,900 reported three years earlier. No data was available for 2020-21 or 2021-22.
Hogan said Infrastructure Canada has also not completed any analysis to determine whether an infusion of cash the department received during the pandemic has met its goals.
CMHC, which is the lead agency for the National Housing Strategy, has spent about $4.5 billion so far on various initiatives, but, Hogan said, “the corporation did not measure changes in the outcomes of housing for priority vulnerable groups, including the homeless.”
The housing strategy defines “vulnerable groups” as survivors fleeing domestic violence (especially women and children), older people, people with disabilities, people dealing with mental health and addiction issues, racialized people or communities, immigrants recent, LGBT community, veterans, indigenous. people, young adults and the homeless.
“Although the corporation knew that vulnerable groups were meant to benefit, it did not know whether these groups were actually occupying housing supported by its initiatives,” Hogan said.
“For example, I didn’t know if the units intended for people with disabilities were really occupied by this population.”
The AG’s recommendations to address this oversight were relatively straightforward: Infrastructure Canada should collect and analyze data in a timely manner. The CMHC should assess whether its programs are actually helping vulnerable groups, the AG said.
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Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen said that while data was scarce, he was confident the government had “prevented thousands of people from entering homelessness”.
He also said the government has helped permanently house 32,000 homeless people.
“Absolutely, these programs are having an impact. We need to do better in terms of collection and analysis, yes. We know there is more work to be done,” he said, adding that he accepted all recommendations for improving the AG.
Hussen blamed the pandemic on poor or non-existent data collection. He said community entities that report numbers to the federal government “have had a hard time” during COVID-19.
‘Affordable’ rental housing unaffordable for many: AG
Hogan also found that CMHC has provided funds to build more “affordable” rental housing, but some of these homes are unaffordable for many low-income people.
Under the housing strategy, the federal government defines “affordable” rent as anything that costs less than 30 percent of a household’s pre-tax income.
But CMHC uses a different metric: affordable rent is rent that is less than 80 percent of the median market rent, the average value of all monthly rents paid in a given area.
This means that a large number of rental homes built and paid for with public money fall short of the government’s aim of getting people into homes that will cost less than 30 per cent of their income.
In most of Canada’s provinces and territories, eight out of 13, households spend more than 30% of their income on so-called “affordable” housing units.
“This program is in the early stages,” Hogan said of CMHC’s national housing co-development fund. “They could adjust the program to put it on a more viable path.”
With rents rising in this inflationary period, Hogan said, these rental units will become even less affordable if CMHC sticks to its current definition of “affordable” housing.
Meanwhile, despite being the lead housing agency and the recipient of most housing-related funds, CMHC told Hogan that it is “not directly responsible for addressing chronic homelessness.” Infrastructure Canada also said it is “not only responsible for achieving the strategy’s goal of reducing chronic homelessness.”
Hogan said that based on those responses, there is “minimal federal accountability” for the government’s progress in meeting its stated goal of reducing chronic homelessness by 50 percent.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the party’s housing critic, said Tuesday that “the level of government incompetence is staggering.”
“The Liberals have spent billions to build homes that Canadians can’t afford,” he said. “What’s worse, they don’t even know if that money is reducing homelessness in our communities.
“People are dying in the streets. The Liberals have turned their backs on them.”