“Homelessness & Affordability Crisis”

Homelessness is growing the fastest in Canadian communities where rental prices have spiked and vacancy rates have tightened for low-cost rental units, according to a first-of-its-kind national analysis.

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, in a study to be published Thursday, proved a clear relationship between regional rates of homelessness and housing affordability. It helps explain why homelessness has surged in Canada since 2018 and why certain communities have seen a sharper increase than others.

The federal government is pledging $2.7 billion to build more than 18 housing projects across the city of Toronto, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday.

The plan includes 5,600 rental homes, 1,800 of which will be “deeply affordable,” supportive or rent-controlled, according to Carney. He said 4,500 new homes will be under construction by year’s end.

He said the projects will take place in neighbourhoods hardest hit by rising rent and evictions, and will include a 16-story complex in Parkdale and another in Scarborough at 158 Borough Drive.

Building Gang Banger slums.

On Aug. 19, the United States is expected to impose a 50% tariff on selected Canadian dairy products. Predictably, Ottawa will denounce Donald Trump and portray any discussion about reforming supply management as capitulation. That would be a mistake. The tariffs do not cover all dairy exports. Cheese, butter, yogurt and conventional milk are generally excluded. They primarily target ingredients such as whey, milk powders, lactose, casein and milk-protein concentrates.

Rising grocery prices are forcing many Canadians to cut back on meat and fresh food, while one in five say they have skipped meals over the past six months, according to new research commissioned by the federal Department of Agriculture.

Blacklock’s Reporter says the survey found food affordability has become the dominant concern for Canadian shoppers, with most respondents saying inflation has fundamentally changed how they buy groceries.

(Incognito)

HALIFAX – As the affordability crisis and overall inflation continues to impact Canadians across the country, a new national survey from Narrative Research showed 76 per cent said the cost of food and groceries had the biggest impact on their household finances.

Forty-seven per cent said gas is also a significant financial pressure, followed by mortgage and rent at 33 per cent.

Electricity, household maintenance and repairs, and home heating have also caused high levels of financial anxiety for Canadians.

According to Blacklock’s Report, the federal department of agriculture paid for a survey of 3,000 Canadian shoppers and found the typical Canadian family can no longer afford to follow Canada’s Food Guide diet — half of the plate fresh fruits and vegetable, one-quarter whole grains and another quarter protein. (AgCanada suggests mostly plant-based proteins, but that’s a political and ecological fantasy.)

A federal report gives a sense of the homeless count in Canada with 2025’s numbers doubling since the last survey in 2022, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

According to new data from Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s department, 12,857 people nationwide slept in “unsheltered locations such as streets, alleys, parks, transit stations, abandoned buildings, vehicles, ravines and other outdoor locations.”

For generations, Canada offered something remarkable. It wasn’t guaranteed wealth, instant success, or a perfect life. Instead, it offered something more enduring: the belief that ordinary people, through hard work and personal responsibility, could build a better life than the one they inherited.

That belief became the Canadian dream.