June 24 2026

The shortage of affordable housing is often portrayed as a big city problem. A recent CBC article on the waiting list for affordable housing in New Brunswick makes it clear that the shortage of affordable housing is a problem across Canada.

According to the article, there are now 14,300 households on the waitlist for affordable housing. That’s up from 4,300 in 2020.

More than 50% of renters in New Brunswick meet the income requirements for subsidized housing

And the number could grow. The article reports that, while 16% of renters are currently on the waiting list, up to half of people renting in New Brunswick qualify for affordable housing.

Lack of new public and non-profit housing part of reason for long waiting list

One reason for the long waiting list is the massive affordable housing deficit caused by federal and provincial governments cutting funding in the 1970s and 1980s. As the Minister responsible for the New Brunswick Housing Corporation admitted, between the 1970s and the 2020s no new public housing was built in New Brunswick.

Had the federal government not cut funding, hundreds of thousands more affordable housing units would have been built in Canada and many people who are currently struggling or homeless would have a decent place to live.

Profiteering by investors plays a role in skyrocketing demand for affordable housing

But there’s another reason for the housing crisis. As a 2021 report from the NB Coalition for Tenants Rights pointed out, “corporate landlords are increasingly targeting New Brunswick’s multi-family residential housing market, adopting income-generating strategies that deliberately ‘reposition’ affordable units towards the top-end of the rental market.”

The report looked at the actions of a real estate investment trust (REIT). It showed how, in its push to increase profits, the REIT reduced the supply of units that low-income and even middle-income renters could afford.

To solve the housing crisis, build public and non-profit housing and restrict profiteering

None of what is happening in New Brunswick or in the rest of Canada is a surprise for many members of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). Four years ago, the housing policy paper adopted by delegates at the 2022 NUPGE Convention outlined the damage being done by inadequate public funding for new home construction, the reliance on for-profit housing providers and the failure to curb excess profit taking.

What is disappointing is the number of politicians who appear unwilling to be honest about the causes of the housing crisis. Unless a politician is calling for massive increases in funding to build public and non-profit housing units and measures to curb excess profit taking, they aren’t being serious about fixing the housing crisis.