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Distributed for On Point Press

Home Truths

Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis

Uncovers why Canadians are burdened by the world’s highest household debt after decades of failed housing policy and how the situation can be fixed.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians exist on the edge. Renters fear eviction, homeowners feel trapped, and both are vulnerable to becoming homeless with a single stroke of misfortune.

Unaffordable housing in Canada is tearing communities apart. Rising prices force long-time residents to move elsewhere, while established businesses are forced to close their doors because they cannot find staff who can afford to live nearby. 

In Home Truths, housing expert Carolyn Whitzman explores Canada’s crisis from all sides, including defining what adequate housing looks like, explaining why non-market housing is crucial, and outlining how and why to tackle ever-growing wealth disparities between renters and those who own. What she details has wide applicability in all nations struggling with a lack of adequate housing.

Home Truths details the decades of policy that got the country into this mess and shows how all levels of government can work together to provide affordable housing where it is needed, using evidence-backed ideas from planners, politicians, developers, and advocates at home and abroad.
This is the book that anyone needs to understand, and solve, our housing crisis.

334 pages | 13 halftones, 30 illustrations, 10 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2024

Economics and Business: Economics--Development, Growth, Planning

Political Science: Public Policy

Sociology: Urban and Rural Sociology


Reviews

“With local shops shuttered by predatory rent hikes, individuals struggling to find housing, and evictions on the rise, it’s becoming more and more difficult to imagine an end to Canada’s housing crisis. In Home Truths, academic Carolyn Whitzman does just that, offering a clear analysis of the housing issues we face, and policy proposals that could lead us toward a better housing future for all.”

Quill & Quire

Home Truths is a unicorn of a book. Clear and concise, comprehensive yet accessible, well-researched without being heavy or jargon-y. In a little over 200 pages (plus end notes) Whitzman gives us a comprehensive and extremely well-researched overview of what the housing problem is, how we got to where we are and how we can set about fixing it.”

Ottawa Citizen

“Whitzman, an urban geographer at the University of Toronto’s school of cities, is one of those scholars (and a self-admitted wonk) who knows how to make a potentially dense topic lively. Her book is a readable resource that offers a detailed walk-through of Canada’s history of innovative triumphs, failures we live with today and how we can fix this mess. This one’s going to be on the desk of our reporters covering housing. Whitzman’s challenge for decision-makers looking to tackle the problem seriously: ‘Who needs what kind of housing, where, and at what cost?’”

The Tyee

Table of Contents

Introduction:

1. What Is a Home?

2. Why Is Housing So Expensive?

3. How Did We Get in this Mess?

4. Who Is in Charge?

5. Who Needs What Kinds of Homes Where at What Cost?

6. Can Canada End Homelessness?

7. Why Start with Non-Market Housing?

8. How Can Well-Located Housing Become Abundant Again?

9. How Can Renters Have the Same Rights As Owners?

10. Is There a Future for Affordable Homeownership?

11. Who Pays for What?

12. What Can I Do?

References

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