Evaluating the Impact of the National Housing Strategy on the State of Toronto’s Social Housing

The National Housing Strategy (NHS), announced in 2017, marked a major federal re-engagement in Canada’s housing system. Along with efforts to increase new housing supply, the Strategy aimed to repair and renew aging social housing built between the 1940s and 1980s – much of which needed significant capital investment.

As the initial NHS funding period draws to a close, this seminar examines whether federal funding for repairs reversed the decline in legacy social housing. Focusing on Toronto, which received a significant share of federal repair funding through the Affordable Housing Fund, the talk traces how federal and federal–provincial programs resulted in capital investments by housing providers and how these investments affected building conditions.  Dr. Collin Bernard will assess these outcomes against the objectives of NHS repair programs and consider their implications for the next phase of social housing repair and renewal policy.

Speaker:

Collin Bernard is the 2025–2026 Richard M. Bird Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG). He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his research focuses on social housing in Canada and internationally.