Legal Case Argues for Right to Housing in Ontario

Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadians' equality and rights to life, liberty and security. A court case now being prepared in Ontario will argue that affordable housing is a right under the Charter, which will force governments to provide it.

"Charter of Rights challenge being filed on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade the judiciary to force governments to create low-cost public housing. A coalition of social welfare groups that is launching the challenge seeks to compel the federal and Ontario governments to provide affordable housing for those who are homeless or impoverished by the cost of putting a roof over their heads.

A legal brief...notes that the federal government once played a dominant role in providing public housing [but that] it later pushed public housing onto the provinces, which off-loaded it to municipalities, which lack the tax base to shoulder it."