Almost one-quarter of a million Canadian households are on a wait list for social and affordable housing

Almost two-thirds of Canadian households in the lowest income quintile were very concerned about their ability to meet day-to-day expenses in 2022 in the face of rising consumer prices. One way to find financial relief among Canada’s most financially vulnerable is to live in social or affordable housing.

Approximately 3% or 842,000 Canadians aged 15 and older reported living in subsidized housing during the 2021 Census of Population. People living in low income (17%), Black people (12%) and lone parents (8%) were most likely to be living in social and affordable housing.

A further 245,900 households, or approximately 1% of the 15.5 million households in Canada were on a wait list for social and affordable housing in 2022.

Households waiting for subsidized housing (41.7%) were more likely to be in unaffordable housing in 2022 compared with renters and owners, and close to two-thirds (64.5%) found it difficult to make ends meet.

Given that social and affordable housing is mostly a provincial and, in some cases, a municipal responsibility, the number of people on wait lists for social and affordable housing varies markedly nationally.

In Atlantic Canada, households in New Brunswick most likely to wait two years or more for social and affordable housing

Approximately 16,300 households were on a wait list for social and affordable housing in Atlantic Canada in 2022, ranging from 7,100 families in Nova Scotia to 600 in Prince Edward Island.

New Brunswick (1.8% of households) and Nova Scotia (1.6%) had the largest share of households on a social and affordable housing wait list, while Prince Edward Island (0.8%) had the lowest.

Approximately 5,800 households were on a wait list for more than two years in Atlantic Canada. The share of households on a wait list for two years or more in New Brunswick (0.9% of all households in the province) was over twice that of the other Atlantic provinces.

Over half of the households on a wait list for social and affordable housing in Canada live in Ontario

Almost three in four (72.9%) Canadian families on a wait list for social and affordable housing were living in Central Canada in 2022. Overall, households in Ontario (2.3% of all households in the province) were over twice as likely to be on a wait list for public housing than households in Quebec (1.1%).

There were over three times as many households in Ontario (136,600 households) on a wait list for social and affordable housing than in Quebec (42,700). Indeed, over half of all households on a wait list for social and affordable housing in Canada in 2022 were living in Ontario.

Approximately 124,900 households were on a wait list for more than two years in Central Canada. The share of households on a wait list for two years or more in Ontario (1.7% of all households in the province) was over twice that of Quebec (0.7%).

Nationally, Alberta and Manitoba have the lowest share of households waiting for social and affordable housing for more than two years

Approximately 50,300 households in Western Canada were on a wait list for social and affordable housing in 2022, with almost two-thirds (64.8%) of these households living in British Columbia (32,600 households).

Almost half (47.5%) of the households in Western Canada on a wait list for social and affordable housing had been waiting for two or more years, with the largest share by far living in British Columbia (19,000 households).

The share of households on a wait list for two years or more in British Columbia (0.9% of all households in the province) was over four times the rate in Saskatchewan (0.2%), which ranked second in Western Canada.

Alberta and Manitoba (both at 0.1%) had the lowest share of households waiting for social and affordable housing for more than two years nationally.