Page - 363 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

363The Front Line Defence: Housing and Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19 pandemic. Most critically, it has illuminated the ways IPV is directly linked to the housing crisis that Canada has failed to address for decades. These realities demonstrate the urgent need for a gendered analysis of housing policy in Canada and a need to ensure the right to housing is actualized for women and their children. Low-Income Renters The Canadian housing system is characterized by a severe lack of affordable housing. Since the over-emphasis on a market-driven housing system from the mid-1980s onward, Canadian governments have overseen massive decreases in social housing stock, weaker ten- ant protections, and huge increases in housing need and homeless- ness.25 More broadly, Canadian cities are increasingly shaped by the “financialization of housing,” characterized by the expanded role and unprecedented dominance of financial markets and corporations in the housing sector.26 The pandemic has further exacerbated the pre-existing housing challenges faced by those living on low incomes. Low-income renters are more likely to be working low-paying service jobs, and national data indicates since the emergence of COVID-19, half of those making under $16 an hour in Canada have either lost their jobs or a majority of their hours since February 2020.27 Just two months into the pandemic, national data indicated that one in three Canadians feared they would miss rent or mortgage payments.28 To date, Canadian governments have provided limited rent relief during the pandemic. Instead, they have focused on replacing income, but in light of the pre-pandemic housing affordability issues, an income-only approach is proving insufficient. Recognizing the wide- spread employment challenges faced during the pandemic, a majority of Canadian provinces and territories have adopted moratoriums on 25. John R Graham, Karen Swift & Roger Delaney, Canadian  Social  Policy:  An  Intro- duction, 4th ed, (Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2012). 26. Report  of  the  Special  Rapporteur  on  Adequate  Housing  as  a  Component  of  the  Right  to  an  Aequate  Standard  of  Living,  and  on  the  Right  to  Non-Discrimination  in  this  Context, UNHRC, 34th Sess, Annexe, Agenda Item 3, UN Doc A/HRC/34/51 (2017). 27. David Macdonald, “Early Warning: Who’s Bearing the Brunt of COVID19’s Labour Market Impacts?” (9 April 2020), online: Behind the Numbers <behindthe- numbers.ca/2020/04/09/early-warning-covid19-labour-market-impacts/>. 28. “State of Renters During COVID-19: Survey Report” (2020), online: Acorn Canada <acorncanada.org/resource/state-renters-during-covid-19-survey-report>.