Wednesday 2 December 2020

Coronavirus pandemic, cold weather concerns for Canadians experiencing homelessness


The unfortunate Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on all Canadians, but its hit those on a low income especially hard. Now a growing concern exists that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Canada may go up. Katherine Ward has the story of a man from Toronto who is struggling to get the help he needs. 

Weather is certainly getting colder in December. For Canada’s unsheltered population, it makes an already difficult life even more challenging. Take a look at how Canada's cities are dealing with these situations.

It is estimated that approximately 35,000 Canadians experience homelessness on any given night, and at least 235,000 Canadians are homeless in any given year.

As Canada's largest city, Toronto also has the largest number of people who are homeless.

The average Canadian house price in 2020 was forecasted to be 531,000 Canadian dollars, up from 488,862 Canadian dollars in 2018.

It seems that home prices across Canada will drop seven percent in 2021 due to higher unemployment and lower incomes, according to a forecast published by Moody's Analytics on September 23.

A main reason why Canadian housing stayed expensive this year is because supply was low. So, the supply of housing was kept lower than normal. If demand is held constant, a decline in supply will result in a lower price.

Is the housing market going to crash in 2020 in Canada? It seems that housing prices in Toronto are consistently rising throughout the pandemic. However, the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2020 names it as the only North American city in the bubble risk zone.

Many people are wondering: What will happen to the economy in 2021? The 2021 Economic Forecast says that at some point money available for economic stimulus will come to an end. Many economists are predicting it will be two, possibly three years before the economy fully recovers and unemployment dips down to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Many people are wondering: Are we really heading towards another Great Depression? We are headed into a "global depression" - a period of economic problems that few living people have experienced. There are various factors that separate a true economic depression from a mere recession.

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