Housing experts issue warning over federal government’s new housing strategy

Housing experts are issuing a warning following the federal government’s latest attempt to attack the housing crisis.

The government says it’s wading into the housing battle with a wartime attitude, but critics say not to expect any quick victories.

Modest but popular wartime homes line streets in cities like Hamilton, and the federal government says they were the inspiration for its new housing battle.

But there are plenty of questions.

READ MORE: Feds to bring wartime efforts to modern-day housing crisis

CHCH News has been reporting for months now on these houses known as Victory Homes.

They were built during and after the Second World War by the government’s Wartime Housing Commission to deal with a housing crisis then.

There were blueprints for a series of houses, which were often pre-fabricated.

Now, the federal government is going back to the idea.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser says there will be a catalogue of blueprints for basic, modest homes with engineering and zoning approval that can be handed to builders.

“We want to create designs that can actually be built quickly and can be built cheaply without compromising on quality or sustainability,” Fraser said.

READ MORE: Wartime housing solutions proposed in Hamilton’s ongoing crisis

The idea was promoted by Western University Professor Mike Moffatt.

“I think it could be quite transformative in the building of more homes, building them faster and building them at lower cost,” Moffatt said.

A housing economist Murtaza Haider says the new plan is a step in the right direction but, what is missing is the investment required to actually get those homes built.

During the war the government paid for some of the construction. The government hasn’t said that this time.

“The estimates for housing needs are in excess of two trillion dollars in investments. The money has to come from investors. The money has to come from speculators. What we should do is stop scaring those entities away,” Haider said.

He also says this generation may expect more than a basic, low-cost house with something like only one bathroom.

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Burlington realtor Roy La Chappelle says buyers would actually like the idea.

“They are reluctant to live in condos because of the high condo fees and just everything that comes along with it. You know it’s a tight space with hundreds of other people in one building. They like their freedom, even if it is a small home, they would probably prefer that,” La Chappelle said.

He worries that the new program would just turn into an opportunity for real estate investors to buy.

In any event, Haider says the earliest we could see these new homes built would be three or four years from now with prices and rents increasing in the meantime.