NHS Housing Needs Data

Canada is addressing housing data gaps by collecting comprehensive data and developing new tools to analyze market conditions. CMHC works with a wide range of partners to identify, communicate and fill data gaps to better understand housing conditions. This focuses on the housing needs of Canada’s most vulnerable populations.

This diverse sources of housing data are used to develop indicators to measure progress toward NHS outcomes. CMHC is also developing new indicators to measure these outcomes, including housing affordability, housing hardship, building condition and extended useful life of community and affordable housing, social and economic inclusion.

This data will serve as the basis for research. It will track and follow the implementation progress of the strategy. Ultimately, it will help us to better understand the impacts of the policies of the National Housing Strategy over its 10 years.

The National Housing Strategy (NHS) is grounded in enhanced research and data collection to fill important housing data gaps. This data will help to enhance understanding of the housing conditions of Canadians, including the housing needs of many vulnerable groups.

As part of the Housing Needs Data initiative, CMHC has launched two new surveys to provide a more comprehensive picture of the state of community and affordable housing in Canada. The Canadian Housing Survey (CHS) gathers information on the housing conditions of Canadian households while the Social and Affordable Housing Survey — Rental Structures (SAHSRS) collects information on the physical characteristics of the social and affordable housing stock.

While the Social and Affordable Housing Survey — Rental Structures (SAHSRS) was administered internally, CMHC is collaborating with Statistics Canada on the Canadian Housing Survey (CHS) to leverage their resources and expertise in administering large household surveys across Canada, including in the north and remote regions of the country.

Both surveys will be administered on an annual basis. The results from the first year will be released in December 2019.

StatsCan released preliminary information on the findings from the CHS.

CMHC in collaboration with Statistics Canada released the core housing need figures from the 2016 Census in November 2017. Data indicate that the proportion of Canadian households in housing need has remained stable since 2006. In 2016, the rate of core housing need in Canada stood at 12.7%, representing 1.7M households.

General inquiries about the strategy or technical support

• Phone: 1-800-668-2642 (Business hours (ET): 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.)
• Email: contactcentre@cmhc.ca