Sean Orr calls on PM Mark Carney to Fund Affordable Housing

“Prime Minister Carney needs to get Ottawa back in the business of helping fund and build public, co-op, and social housing at scale in Vancouver and in cities and towns across Canada,” said COPE City Councillor Sean Orr, announcing the launch of a new campaign to demand federal funding for permanently affordable housing. 

From the 1960s to the early 1990s, Canadian federal governments built and funded affordable housing at scale. When the feds cut federal support for public, co-op, and social housing – including deep cuts by the 1990s federal Liberal governments – rents skyrocketed and the homelessness crisis worsened across Canada. 

“We are living with the result of more than 30 years of chronic underinvestment by the federal government in the housing we need,” said Orr. “We are calling on PM Carney and the federal government to make up for decades of underinvestment in housing.”

COPE City Councillor Sean Orr was elected by over 50% of voters in the recent by-election – a strong mandate to fight for housing. Now we’re taking that fight on to Ottawa. 

In our Fight for Vancouver platform, COPE and Sean Orr committed to work to build permanently affordable public housing for every income level and in every neighbourhood, in partnership with the provincial government, the federal government, host nations, and non-profits.

“We won’t solve the housing crisis in this country without a federal government genuinely committed to financing and helping build the housing we need,” said Orr. 

“Vancouver voters delivered a clear message earlier this month, and now we’re going to deliver that message loud and clear to the Prime Minister and his Liberal government MPs.” 

Sean Orr is encouraging residents of Vancouver and beyond to write letters to PM Carney calling for a generation investment in public, co-op, and social housing. Councillor Orr will be attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Ottawa at the end of May.