CMHC leader wants to poke a hole in your homeownership dreams

You may have heard about the latest Swedish linguistic export — “flygskam,” or flight shame.

It’s a word directed at people who fly and is intended to make them feel bad about their travel choice due to the environmental implications.

With this in mind, allow me to make a reckless prediction about the next crusading phrase meant to make people feel guilty about acting in their own best interests: “ensamfamiljhemskam.”

This is my attempt at a Swedish word for “single family homeownership shame.” (I used Google Translate; apologies to any Swedish readers if it actually means something rude.) It may not have reached common usage, but keep an eye on your dictionaries.

Last month, Evan Siddall, president of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), gave a speech to a housing conference that might be considered an early indicator of approaching ensamfamiljhemskam.

Before we get to what he said, let’s remind ourselves that the CMHC is a federal Crown corporation that facilitates Canadians buying homes through such things as mortgage insurance. It also operates as a sort of adjunct federal Department of Housing.

So, what does Siddall think about homeownership? He seems to think it’s a very bad idea.

“Our ‘dream of homeownership’ is static and regressive,” he told his audience in Toronto. “We need to call out the glorification of homeownership for the regressive canard that it is.” The often-combative Siddall said he wants to dismantle the dream of homeownership, and in particular put an end to Canadians’ aspirations of owning single-family homes — what he calls “the wrong sort of residential construction.” Rather than build 10 single-family homes on any particular plot of land, he said municipalities should favour “a 100 or 200 multiunit development” of purpose-built rentals.

Given the significance of homeownership among Canadians — 67.8 per cent of Canadian households currently own their home — Siddall admits he has his work cut out for him. “The dream of a singlefamily home in the suburbs still burns strong for many,” he said, blaming this on a “real estate industry drunk on its excess.”

It has long been fashionable in urban planning circles to lament the supremacy of single-family homes for a long list of environmental sins. Siddall’s comments represent a dramatic escalation in this campaign by seeking to kill the notion of homeownership through a combination of government policy and cultural disapproval.

From Siddall’s perspective, everyone should live in dense apartment complexes because that way we can fit more people into less space cheaply. (Stalinist Russia just popped into my head for some reason.) Single-family homes are thus the selfish option because they prevent other denser options from occurring. Feeling shame yet?

With his provocative stance, Siddall has put himself rather far offside his federal bosses. It is his job, for example, to implement the Trudeau government’s new First Time Home Buyers Incentive program that has as its explicit goal helping young families buy houses.

And all Canadians continue to demonstrate a deep affection for homeownership. Despite plenty of talk about an affordability crisis among younger generations, a recent KPMG poll found 72 per cent of Canadians aged 23 to 38 want to own a home, even if that’s tougher today than it was for their parents.

“These comments reflect an elitist and dramatically out-of-touch sentiment,” says Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association and a former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, of Siddall’s speech. “It’s a shocking approach for someone who’s position is to encourage people to have a place to call home.”

Hudak argues the solution to any affordability crisis lies in basic economics. If excess demand is the problem, increased supply will resolve it. His “all of the above” list includes opening more land to new development, reducing red tape to allow for higher density projects and permitting innovations such as laneway homes and co-ownership — all policies recently backed by the Ford government.

And he offers a lengthy list of private and public benefits arising from homeownership, including forced retirement savings and stronger communities.

“Ontarians are on our side,” Hudak says, “the dream of homeownership is as strong as ever. And it provides an essential stability and strength to our social fabric.”

He’s right, of course. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing more about ensamfamiljhemskam from folks who simply don’t care about Canadians’ dreams.