University professor hopes to get people talking about the housing shortage
It's being called a daunting task by a University of Waterloo professor... getting Canadians to look for solutions to the housing crisis and talk about it.
Brian Doucet is showing his documentary "Thinking Beyond the Market" at the Fort Erie high school late Wednesday afternoon, hoping to shift how we view housing.
He says it must go from how many homes are built to what kind, and for who. "At the moment, there are about 650,000, roughly, units of non market housing, which is anything outside the realm of market forces. This can be public housing, it can be coops, it can be land trusts, it can be non profit housing."
He adds there's a conflict between for profit housing and housing as a human right.
He adds Canada must double homes built each year more than any previous year. "We've lost, between 2011 and 2021, more than half a million units, that were affordable to people on low and moderate incomes. And most of those apartments are still there, it's just that they're no longer affordable."
He says where for profit developers can't or won't build, social housing must take over.
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
5:00-7:30 PM
Greater Fort Erie Secondary School Theatre
1640 Garrison Rd., Fort Erie, ON, L2A 5M4
Admission: Free
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