Social housing - public, non-profit, or co-operative - was once a part of Canada's urban success story. After years of neglect and many calls for affordable homes and solutions to homelessness, housing is once again an important issue. In Still Renovating, Greg Suttor tells the story of the rise and fall of Canadian social housing policy. Focusing on the main turning points through the past seven decades, and the forces that shaped policy, this volume makes new use of archival sources and interviews, pays particular attention to institutional momentum, and describes key housing programs. The analysis looks at political change, social policy trends, housing market conditions, and game-changing decisions that altered the approaches of Canadian governments, their provincial partners, and the local agencies they supported. Reinterpreting accounts written in the social housing heyday, Suttor argues that the 1970s shift from low-income public housing to community-based non-profits and co-ops was not the most significant change, highlighting instead the tenfold expansion of activity in the 1960s and the collapse of social housing as a policy priority in the 1990s. As housing and neighbourhood issues continue to flare up in municipal, provincial, and national politics, Still Renovating is a valuable resource on Canada’s distinctive legacy in affordable housing.

Greg Suttor is a housing researcher at the Wellesley Institute in Toronto.

Greg Suttor's profile page

“Suttor outlines in considerable detail the effect of the main drivers of policy: reconstruction imperatives after the war, rapid growth and urbanization, the influence of policy initiatives in other countries, labour politics, economic trends, the broader housing market trends, federal-provincial relations, broader welfare trends, and the influence of particular politicians and policy experts. I doubt there is another publication on Canadian social housing policy that provides this level of detail on the policy shifts and the causes of these shifts over this sixty-plus-year period.” Tom Carter, University of Winnipeg

"A wonderful book and appearing at a very opportune moment. Housing is currently a major item of political interest, not to mention political controversy, stemming from the extreme housing costs particularly in Toronto and Vancouver. Still Renovating is meticulously researched and combines this with an ability to draw out major broad themes; the welfare state, institutional momentum, public views about slum clearance and about the acceptability or not of homelessness, ideas both Canadian and worldwide and, finally, individual actors that have made a difference. Certainly a book to read and, more than that, a book to keep." Canadian Journal of Urban Research

“Suttor recognizes that many elements have gone into the making of social housing policy. Apart from the more obvious economic & political considerations, these include institutional inertia and the impact of key individuals. Complex and balanced, his account is thoroughly convincing.” Richard Harris, McMaster University