If you’ve been following any of the federal leaders, the debates, or party platforms in this election, you would never know that housing is top of mind for Canadians.

Yet, over a quarter of Canadians would place housing affordability in their top three concerns, ahead of other high profile issues.

In five GTA ridings, a third of renters are spending more than half of their income on rent. In Willowdale, a riding where the crisis is at its peak, nearly 40 per cent of renters face this predicament.

The housing system is not working for Canadians. Millions lack decent, affordable housing, and upwards of 235,000 people experience homelessness every year. Despite this, the focus in the final stretch of the election has been on the dual citizenship and dual airplanes of the party leaders.

During the leadership debates, we had an opportunity to discuss affordable housing with all six federal leaders in one place. Shockingly, during a question on affordability and household debt, none of the leaders talked about the high cost of housing.

For those wanting answers on housing, there was recently a national housing debate where key questions were put to the political parties on how they would address the housing crisis.

Let’s start with the good news. There was agreement between all parties that in a country as wealthy as Canada, no one should experience homelessness and that everyone deserves access to a safe, affordable place to call home. Unfortunately, there was less agreement between parties about the federal government’s role in addressing the housing crisis.

Adam Vaughan, the Liberal candidate for Spadina—Fort York, promoted the current government’s national housing strategy. The Liberals seem content to stay the course on the rollout of their 2017 strategy to cut homelessness in half and remove 530,000 households from housing need over the next decade. Unfortunately, the jury is still out as to whether these targets are attainable with the limited dollars the Liberals put on the table, and their platform offers no hint of a course correction.

Conservative Pierre Poilievre’s rhetorical prowess was in fine form as he stuck to a single message that government red tape and taxation are the principle constraints to the development of an adequate supply of housing for Canada’s population. So far, the Conservatives have pledged support for first-time homebuyers, but there’s been very little promised to help the millions of Canadians struggling to find and keep a decent place to rent. Planned cuts to infrastructure in the Conservative platform require greater scrutiny to ensure housing spending is not delayed or cut from future federal budgets.

Angella MacEwen from the NDP seemed to strike a chord with the live audience in Ottawa when she said, “I think we put too much emphasis on home ownership. Adults rent, and that’s OK.” Her party is promising to build 500,000 new units of affordable housing, while also providing immediate relief to low- and moderate-income renters through an income transfer of up to $5,000 per year for those struggling to pay their rent.

Both the Green and Bloc candidates agreed that Canadians cannot rely on the private market alone in order to solve the housing crisis. Bloc candidate Geneviève Nadeau highlighted how Québec’s AccèsLogis program has continued to build a reliable supply of community and co-operative housing for low- and modest-income Quebecers.

As voters deliberated over their choices this Thanksgiving weekend, it is disappointing that the party leaders have relegated renters to the kids table. The crisis of supply and affordability in the housing market is not going away, and it will be up to the next federal government to lead sustainable and transformational initiatives in order to make the housing system work for everyone.

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If good housing for all is indeed one of your top election priorities, you can urge candidates to support co-operative housing as a proven solution to the housing crisis. Today, a quarter of a million Canadians live in co-ops where members enjoy long term affordability, security of tenure and stronger communities. Canadian co-ops have a 50-year track record, and have shown to be viable in rural, suburban and urban housing markets.

All federal parties can support new co-operative development by investing in the creation of new supply, while also setting aside surplus federal land to develop permanently affordable housing. In an election that is supposed to be about affordability, voters deserve more solutions to the housing crisis.