In the first comprehensive book on the topic since the 1970s, former Toronto mayor John Sewell considers housing issues in Canada.

Writing in a style that is accessible and direct, Sewell considers public, private, and social housing. He looks at affordability and need, discusses definitions of good housing and good neighbourhoods, and examines the various approaches that governments have taken since World War II to increase the stock of reasonably priced housing. He shows why these approaches have consumed large amounts of public dollars yet have often failed. Indeed, homelessness is a larger problem in Canadian cities than ever before. In a time of shrinking public expenditures, he proposes the kinds of solutions necessary to ensure that all Canadians are well housed..

As chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority in the eighties and, more recently, as chair of the Commission on Planning and Development Reform in Ontario, Sewell has played a unique role in increasing public awareness of housing issues. His thought-provoking analysis will be of interest to all who believe that Canadians deserve affordable housing.

JOHN SEWELL served as an alderman on Toronto City Council during the 1970s and was mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980. He chaired the Metro Toronto Housing Authority from 1986 to 1988 and the Commission on Planning and Development Reform in Ontario from 1991 to 1993. Sewell wrote an urban affairs column for The Globe and Mail from 1984 to 1986, currently writes for Now, a Toronto weekly, and is the author of Up Against City Hall, Police: Urban Policing in Canada, and the recently published The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning.

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