Transforming the Non-Market Housing System in Ontario: How the Distinctions Between Public Housing and Co-operative Housing Are Breaking Down

In Canada, the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, individually and collaboratively, have established polices and programs associated with building and maintaining non-market housing that is affordable for low-income earners. By “non-market,” we mean housing that is neither bought nor sold, but can only be occupied; the households living in them simply pay a charge to the agency that serves as the landlord (the government, a non-profit group, or a or cooperative). Three different models of non-market housing have emerged over the past 50 years—public, co-operative, and non-profit. Recent efforts by the federal and provincial governments to simplify the different policies and programs have transformed the non-market housing system and blurred the distinctive nature of the non-market housing models. Legislative and policy reforms to the non-market housing system have resulted in major changes to co-operative housing, while, at the same time, co-operative housing has started to influence organizational aspects of other non-market housing models. The reforms are not yet complete, but our research, which is based on a sample of non-market housing organizations in Ontario, shows that the blending of the administrative practices is making the co-operative housing model less distinct from the other forms. The line between public and social housing is disappearing, and in the future it may result in only one non-market housing model in Canad