$500 Rent Top-Up Program
Recently the Canadian Federal Government offered a one-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit to help low-income renters with the cost of renting. You may be eligible for a tax-free one-time payment of $500 if your income and the amount that you pay on rent qualify:
ADJUSTED NET INCOME OF
$35,000 or less for families or
$20,00 or less for individuals
2022 ELIGIBLE RENT
Equal to at least 30% of 2021 adjusted family net income
Applications are open until Friday, March 31, 2023:
www.canada.ca/en/services/taxes/child-and-family-benefits/top-up-canada-housing-benefit.html
But I don't see this being good value for the $1.2 BILLION cost. Don't get me wrong, this will absolutely help the people that qualify and they should apply today. However I don't think this will have any effect on short, medium or long-term housing affordability!
There is no single bullet that will help improve housing affordability but just giving away cash is not going to fix the problem. I would have preferred if the government(s) considered a few of these ideas:
Allow low-income people to write off rent on their taxes
Support Trade Programs with discounted education/incentives for carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.
Provide interest free loans to builders of purpose built-rental buildings
Wave all development charges for purpose built-rental buildings & provide property tax rebates
Zone all areas within 1km of a subway/bus/train station to allow purpose built-rental buildings with expedited committee reviews
Provide incentives for homeowners to build rental units in their principle residences (without all the red tape) - e.g. rebate for egress windows to make basement units "legal"