Peer-Reviewed Research On Hosing Issue in Canada

Peer-Reviewed Research On Hosing Issue in Canada

One of the social factors affecting Canada is housing. Housing has become a typical social issue globally based on the information that the press is presenting on different media platforms. It is shown to be a fundamental paradox, which is the modern form of capitalism because there is a high demand for housing while the housing units available are few, overpriced, and leading to competition. Different scholars also point out that housing, in general, is becoming expensive, especially in the cities because of the increase in population in the urban centers in search of jobs and other opportunities. It is also apparent that in most cities globally, housing has been made into an investment vehicle, which has also led to the oversupply of luxury housing and resultant lack of affordable houses in many parts of the world.

Peer-Reviewed Research On Hosing Issue in Canada

The study by Tedesco (2019) notes that housing is one of the basic human needs and that a house that is safe, affordable, and adequate is a foundation of wellbeing. The study further points out that globally, there is a challenge to meet such needs, and Canada as a nation is not exempted. According to Tedesco (2019), Canada has the problem of housing affordability and that averagely, more than 235000 people are homeless annually, and more than thirty-five are homeless at least one night annually. The groups that are majorly represented in the figures are indigenous groups of people, women youths, racialized populations, persons with LGBT identifications, among others. The study notes that despite the recent dialogues on housing and acknowledgment of the challenge, many people are still homeless because the housing crisis is a complex issue that may not be easy to solve in a single year. There has been a struggle historically to address the challenge of safe and adequate housing for many populations, although as time goes by, other problems such as affordability come up.

In another study conducted by Buccieri (2016), homelessness is presented as a complex social issue that required a coordinated approach to handle it. Buccieri (2016) notes that in the current years, Canada has been taking part in integrated care and joining forces with social care services to address the concerns of the homeless. The study acknowledges that there are people in the nation that are homeless in Canada in cities like Ontario. In 2014the central-east area of Ontario started with plans which made managers of more than municipal regions as well as the local health planners come together to establish a committee that would last for a minimum of ten years and the prime concerns to be addressed by the committee were housing and homelessness in Ontario. Buccieri (2016) notes that the development made by the group was significant in handling the housing challenge because people from diverse locations, operating in various provincial ministries and governed by different policies, were brought to deal with the challenge of housing.

August (2016), on the other hand, gives a slightly different opinion regarding the housing condition in Canada. The study notes that Toronto has come out as the redevelopment of Canada’s public housing. The research shows that massive transformation on housing has been made in Toronto, and there are still plans that are underway to change most of the projects into neighborhoods for mixed uses and mixed incomes. Regent Park is pointed to be one of the leading housing projects as it sits on 70 acres of land and has some of the modern public housing facilities. August (2016) notes that the approach is, however, still new to Canada, although it has gained popularity, and it is one of the easiest ways of dealing with the worldwide housing crisis.

Heffernan, Faraday, & Rosenthal (2015) highlight the need to fight for the right for housing in Canada. According to the study, housing is a national issue because there are more than 235000 people in Canada who are homeless, and one in every five people have challenges affording a home. The study acknowledges the mass homelessness in Canada and highlights that this challenge did not “just happen,” and that it is not “usual” and either is it inevitable. The study notes that the situation was highly contributed by the funding cuts by the government and thus perceived the challenge to be one that was manufactured owing to the federal government policies as well as the choices made by the provincial governments. The mentions that the only way through which the crisis can be dealt with is rectifying policies regarding housing because, without the proper policies, the right to housing ceases to be a right.

Online News Articles Ideas on Housing Issue in Canada

Schneider et al. (2018) note that housing is a global crisis and that as commonly portrayed by the press to be an issue in cities like New York, London, San Francisco, among others, the reality is that housing has become expensive. Some of the wide range cities that the research points out include Philadelphia, Detroit, and the worst of the housing crises are experienced in rapidly develsupply and demand oping cities like Toronto due to the structural challenge of housing affordability. The research notes that the government and other international organizations concerned with development would be forced to step in to reinforce the finances to ensure affordable housing becomes a reality.

Clark (2020) argues that the on the real estate make it rather hard for the solution to affordable housing to be reached. There is more demand for people who come into cities seeking work; however, with better-paying jobs, inflationary pressures apply and increase the overall cost of living, which includes the housing prices. The solution to the challenge of housing affordability, as Clark (2020) notes, is cutting on labor costs and establishing new ideas for affordable housing. Kopun (2019) notes that the housing issue is a challenge for the federal parties and that it is their responsibility to make housing more affordable. Kopun (2019) feels that the federal government needs to set aside $800 million annually for the next eight years for it to resolve the challenge of housing affordability, not only in Toronto but in other regions in Canada with housing affordability challenge.

Comparison of Media Articles and Peer-Reviewed Journals on Housing Issue in Canada

The agenda of the media articles is to show that Canada, like the rest of the world, has a housing challenge. The media publications place emphasis on the role that the government and the government policies play in ensuring affordable housing. Further, they relate the housing challenge to urbanization and rural-urban migration. The media publications agree with the information in the peer-reviewed journals that the government has played a significant role in leading to the housing challenge. The challenge of housing availability and affordability has been significantly contributed by the government due to poor financing, finance cuts, and poor policies relating to housing. The media publications majorly appeal to the public because they are directly affected by the housing challenge. Most of the insights highlight how the crisis has developed globally, and what the role of the government is in the issue. The journal article’s main targets, on the other hand, are the political administration. Scholars such as Tedesco (2019) point out how local governments or the municipal council could join forces to deal with the problem of housing affordability.

Media presents the issue in a manner that the public can clearly understand because it is the sphere in which democracy can be practiced. While they highlight most of the problems that have been presented in the peer journals, the mode of presentation in the media publications is such that it advocates for corporate ownership and commercializes pressure on subjects that affect the society differently. Through the writing, the public is influenced to seek their rights for affordable housing, which have not been made possible due to poor government policies and financial planning. Further, the mode of presentation employed communicates the extent of the challenge and how long the challenge would last is appropriate measures are to be taken. In this case, as Kopun (2019) notes, if the government were to start being responsible and set aside some funds, then the problem would be reduced in eight years, at least. With such knowledge, the public is able to make adjustments to deal with the problem as long as the issue is not resolved. Alternatively, such knowledge can provoke their feelings such that they demonstrate and advocate for their rights, which will force the government to be quick-acting.

Instead of using propaganda to appeal to the attitude of the public regarding the housing challenge, media could use facts such as those presented in the peer-reviewed articles to appeal to the public. Presenting facts such as the number of people that are homeless in Canada annually, is 235000 would still appeal to the public and influence the nation to take part in dealing with the housing challenge instead of merely relying on the government. While propaganda techniques aid in communicating the challenge to the public, the people are issued with partial and not complete knowledge, which cannot be very beneficial in dealing with the challenge they may be handling. The scholarly articles have mainly used economic and political ideologies to highlight the housing challenge because the challenge has been attributed to poor government policies, finance cuts, and poor economic planning. One of the ideologies that have been emphasized by scholars such as Tedesco (2019) is communism, where it has been pointed out that the housing challenge in Canada is a modern form of Capitalism. By using such ideologies, agencies of action are designated.

Conclusion

The housing crisis is a challenge in Canada, as presented by different scholars. Media publications also show that housing is a challenge, not only in Canada but also in other nations globally, especially in developed cities. The challenge is attributed to federal government policies, which need to be changed to solve the challenge of house affordability and availability in Canada.