EB NEED at least a million new

homes and apartments in Can-
ada to solve the housing crisis.

Public funds must be spent on a
vast scale for public housing. Gov-
ernments must act to end land specu-
lation, soaring rents and interest rates.

Just as governments have had to
provide such necessities as power and
water for the people, so governments
must now be made to look on housing
as a vital social necessity, and upon
land for housing as an essential natu-
ral resource to.be brought under pub-
lic control.

i aii " 4

om,

Tt is not that we lack the raw ma-

terial or land for building homes, or
the skilled construction workers to

build them.

We have a housing crisis because

Canadian society is organized in a
system based on the drive for max-

imum profits rather than the fulfill-
ment of human needs.

This crisis can be solved only by
social action organized through gov
ernments acting in new and entirely
different ways.

Only one family in 100
has no housing worries

More and more Canadians are be-
ing faced with new and mounting
problems, in buying a home or rent-
ing an apartment, which they cannot
solve as individuals. People in the so-
called middle income brackets cannot
afford $30,000 or $40,000 houses or
$200-a-month apartments built to
provide a fat profit for land speculat-
ors and investors.

In fact, the only Canadians who
do not face a housing problem today
are the fewer than 40,000 with in-
comes over $16,000 a year—who'
even with their families make up less
than one percent of the Canadian
population.

But in glaring contrast to these
40,000, there are an_ estimated

1.300.000 other Canadians who do
not earn enough to pay income tax.
Another 2,500,000 work for incomes
below $3,000 a year—and this means
they are compelled to live in poverty.
These with their families total more
than eight million; 40 percent of all
the people of Canada.

For these Canadian citizens there
is no hope now for decent homes.
Two million of them live in slums—
in dwellings unfit for human habita-
tion—run down, often without baths,
showers or even inside toilet facilities.

Their lives are blighted. Their
children often enter new schools and
public buildings that are beautiful
expressions of the triumphs of mod-
ern architecture and, technology.
They come home to dark cramped
rooms with crumbling walls. They
learn young that the “affluence” of
Canada is not for them or for mil
lions like them.

These measures would begin to get |
the housing crisis. They could be
well started in 1967, but it will take
much public pressure to get that be-
ginning made. In the meantime, we
say that the demand should come for-
ward from every corner of the land
for these emergency measures which

Planning

These measures to make it possible
to begin solving the housing crisis
must be planned for people, and with
the participation of people.

People are different, with different

needs and wants. Some prefer apart-
ments, others individual homes. Some
want to live in the core of the city
close to work and cultural and recre-
ational facilities, others prefer living
on the outskirts of our big cities.
Whether they live downtown or on
the edge of the countryside, there
must be provision for playgrounds
and nurseries for children. It is easier
to have green space and parks in the
suburbs, but it is not impossible in
the city centre, and many a private

would come late but not tuo late.

@ A freeze on the price of land, so
that pending action against specu-
lators no further inflation can take
place.

@ A freeze on rentals, so that no
landlord will be able to profiteer as a
result of existing shortages.

for people

suburban development in the past
has neglected these essential provi-
sions. Certainly, all new towns
around our cities must be served by

fast, efficient and cheap public trans-
portation.

The city and the country around
it can be made a beautiful place for
people to live. Modern science and
town planning have already shown
us a vision of what can be done.
What stands in the way is private
profit and the failure of governments
to act. It is this which the people of
Canada must overcome to build for
their children the kind of homes they
need and deserve.