By Damian Collins & Isabella Grande, May 2025
The answer to this important question depends on what we measure, how community housing is defined, and who reports data. But good estimates are available!
In November 2021, the results of CMHC’s Social and Affordable Housing Survey were released. It found that there were just over 655,000 units of community housing in Canada – including social housing, affordable (below-market) housing, and co-operative housing.
CMHC’s survey uses a broad definition of community housing, but omits community housing managed by the Government of Québec via the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) and on-reserve units.
In March 2025, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reported on The Evolution of Canada’s Social Housing Stock. It notes that “Despite the importance of social housing to CMHC’s housing strategy and spending, Canada lacks reliable data to understand the size and evolution of Canada’s social housing stock.”
In this context, social housing refers to “housing which is both targeted to low-income households and offered at below-market rents.” It includes rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units.
When the Office of the PBO removed units from the Social and Affordable Housing Survey that were not targeted in this way, and added targeted units owned by the SHQ (~180,000) and CMHC on-reserve units (28,000) it reached a total of just under 689,000 units of social housing.
Its report concludes that “the best available data suggest that Canada has roughly 600,000 to 700,000 units of social housing and this stock has been relatively stable over the last 30 years” (emphasis added). This is captured in the following figure:
Source: Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Although the total stock of social housing has been relatively stable over time, it has declined as a proportion of Canada’s total housing system, because the market sector has grown significantly. The Office of the PBO estimates that social housing made up 4.1% of the housing system in 2021. Other sources, including CMHC and the National Housing Council have put this figure at 3.5%.
How much community housing is being added in Canada?
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer reports that 4,000-7,000 units of new social housing have been completed each year since Canada adopted the National Housing Strategy. The highest number was 6,887 new units in 2024.
However, this total omits new units in smaller centres and rural areas.
Because of the relatively slow pace of construction, most social housing in Canada is at least 30 years old. In fact, 87% was constructed prior to 1996!
Who owns community housing in Canada?
In 2024, the National Housing Council released a report on Scaling-up the Non-Market Housing Sector in Canada. It provided the following breakdown of community housing by ownership structure:
- Government owned 54%
- Provincial public housing (RGI) = 18%
- Municipal public housing (mostly RGI) =33%
- Municipal non-profit housing (mostly low end of market) = 3%
- Community non-profit owned 26%
- Co-operative owned 16%
- Indigenous (off-reserve) owned 3%
