Housing is key to social welfare, and in fact Canada now recognizes housing as a human right in legislation, but “housing is famously the shaky of ’wobbly pillar’ of the welfare state in that it is only slightly decomodified” (Still Renovating: A History of Canadian Social Housing Policy by Greg Suttor, 2017). The commodification of housing means that most housing is subject to profit-seeking and rising prices, just like any other commodities that are subject to market forces. Non-profit housing is an island of relative housing security in sea of for-profit housing, but, to extend the metaphor, the sea level is rising and not-for-profit housing is shrinking.
