Population Living Below Housing Standards

Appropriate housing is a fundamental aspect to a high quality of life — unmet housing needs can impact physical health and well-being. To address the housing needs of people living in core need, it is necessary to understand why and which housing standard they fall below. This information helps planners, policymakers, and local governments address the housing needs of those that are currently housed but are vulnerable to unstable conditions and potentially at risk of homelessness.

Statistics Canada has established these housing standards:

Adequate housing: housing that is reported by their residents as not requiring any major repairs.
Affordable housing: housing with shelter costs equal to less than 30% of total before-tax household income.
Suitable housing: housing that has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of resident households according to National Occupancy Standards (NOS).

Core housing need

A person is in core housing need if their housing does not meet at least one of the adequacy, suitability, or affordability standards and their household would have to spend 30% or more of its total before-tax income to pay the median rent of alternative local housing that is acceptable. Housing is considered acceptable if it meets all three housing standards above.

Percentage of people living below housing standards by housing standard, tenure, and Indigenous identity in 2021

People living below housing standards by housing standard and tenure in 2021

People of Indigenous identity living in core housing need by tenure in 2021

Note: Data is not available for all member jurisdictions, only those with available data are included.

Key observations

Unaffordable housing is the most common unmet standard — 655,720 people lived in unaffordable housing in Metro Vancouver in 2021.
Renters were more likely to live in unaffordable housing — 31.6% of Indigenous renters and 32.6% of non-Indigenous renters lived in unaffordable housing in Metro Vancouver in 2021, compared to 17.2% of Indigenous homeowners and 22.0% of non-Indigenous homeowners.
Renters were also more likely to live in unsuitable housing (i.e., not enough bedrooms) than homeowners.
Indigenous people were more likely to live in inadequate housing (in need of major repairs) than non-Indigenous people, regardless of tenure.
Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA) reports that high rates of Indigenous homelessness are attributed to the lack of affordable safe, and accessible housing and intergenerational trauma resulting from colonization, cultural genocide and policies that activity sought to dismantle Indigenous culture, families and communities.

People living below housing standards, by Indigenous identity, tenure, and housing standard, 2021 Census

Notes

The glossary provides definitions of each technical term, ensuring consistent interpretation.
Jurisdiction and Metro Vancouver totals may not equal the sum of individual values due to rounding, data suppression, or the omission of smaller data points to maintain visual readability. If a geography is not listed or appears missing, the associated data was either unavailable or did not meet reporting thresholds.
Statistics Canada defines Indigenous identity as to whether the person identified with the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
Core housing need is not assessed for on-reserve households. Only private, non farm, non reserve, and owner or renter households with incomes greater than zero and shelter-cost-to-income ratios less than 100% are assessed.
Non-family households with at least one maintainer aged 15 to 29 attending school full time are considered not to be in core housing need. This is considered a transitional phase.
Independent social housing does not include shelter beds, transitional housing, assisted living and supportive housing, or rent supplements for the private rental market. Co-operative housing is also typically excluded, except in unique circumstances involving funding and/or housing agreements.

Source
This information is from Statistics Canada census data .

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