When housing becomes unaffordable, it has ripple effects for low-income households in other areas of their lives. The cost of housing can crowd out spending on health and education, or otherwise force cutbacks on day-to-day costs like nutritious food. These pressures can have long-term costs to these individuals and society in increased need for health and social services and lost productivity. At their most extreme, housing affordability pressures can push people into homelessness, with devastating impacts on health and high costs to hospital emergency rooms and shelters. There are two main areas of policy today aimed at access to housing. Policies geared towards affordable rental options for low-income Canadians. Policies aimed at making home ownership more accessible. Because the burdens of housing affordability challenges fall primarily on low income renters, this paper will focus primarily on how our housing policies and programs are addressing the needs of that group, and that these policies and programs are in need of renewal. The main set of programs in place to help lower-income Canadians access decent housing is through what is typically called “Social Housing” or “Affordable Housing.” These are generally homes owned and operated by provincial or local governments or non-profit organizations. They are operated on a non-profit basis, with low-income households paying below market rents, often at rates tied to a maximum share of their incomes. These “Rent-Geared-to-Income” (RGI) units are usually set at 30 per cent of household income (which is the somewhat arbitrary threshold for shelter costs used by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to determine “affordability”).