BC Policy Solutions is a British Columbia-based charitable think tank that went public in 2025. It focuses on researching the policy solutions available to British Columbia. It is a successor to the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and continues to produce high-quality work.

Senior Economist Alex Hemingway authored This is why BC’s housing crisis hasn’t been solved yet. Hemingway agrees that public ownership or support is critical to changing the current situation.

The magnitude of the housing shortage is huge, the problems chronic, but the housing crisis is solvable.

Throughout the province and country, the housing crisis is marked by high rents and prices, a scarcity of homes, displacement, homelessness and the quiet exclusion of people from entire neighbourhoods.

While a boon to some, high housing costs are a millstone weighing on many households, a drag on the economy and a barrier to progress in a range of other policy areas including poverty, affordability, climate action and child care…

…the market alone cannot solve the housing crisis. It is essential to significantly increase public investment in non-market housing to meet the needs of the people worst affected by the housing crisis…

For decades, Canada has underinvested in public, non-profit and co-op housing.

The result is that today only about 3.5% of the country’s housing stock is social housing, which is half the OECD average…

The federal government did once invest substantially in social housing—building roughly 16,000 new units per year in the 1970s and 80s—but funding cuts in the 1990s saw that wither. And the provinces—including BC—did not fill the gap. 

The consequences: wait-lists for social housing have grown rapidly and homelessness has proliferated in one of the world’s richest countries. Failing to ensure people can meet their housing needs comes at enormous social and economic costs…

Hemingway states that building more units and addressing scarcity will cause prices to fall. Generation Squeeze says instead of more supply, we need the right supply. I agree with the latter.

‘Right supply’ means building homes that – in location, form, tenure and price – better suit the needs of existing and aspiring residents.

With commodification of housing in Canada, homes are treated as investment assets, not just shelter. Investor-led speculation has led to soaring prices, rental increases, and rising homelessness. Housing has been turned into a wealth-extraction tool, impacting low-income families and essential workers most severely.