Serendipity: Canadian Churches and the Postwar Housing Crisis

Canada is facing a housing crisis marked by unaffordable houses, lack of homes, ridiculously high rental costs, and a dismal failure to build enough units to alleviate the crisis. And inflation and high interest rates pile on even more pressures. As a result, countless people are homeless, living in undesirable conditions, or even on the streets. It is a complete mess with no end in sight.
 
But as I recently discovered it is not the first time Canada has gone through a housing crisis. While recently reading some church periodicals from the later years of the Second World War and the immediate postwar period I discovered some commentary on what the churches considered to be a pressing and alarming housing crisis.
 
What follows are some brief observations on the churches’ response.

First, the churches saw it as their responsibility to identify the gravity of the situation. Here are some quotes from Presbyterian, Baptist, and United Church documents to give you a sense of their concern.
 

• “Whereas the housing situation in Canada has reached the portions of a national crisis, involving a need in new construction for one-quarter as many dwellings as now exist in the entire Dominion, and major repairs to half a million homes now standing, and Whereas bad housing is a menace to society through its fostering of disease, delinquency and crime, Be it resolved that we urge the importance of a National Conference on Housing, to be held by our governments (Federal, Provincial, and Municipal) to plan for a major program for housing for citizens in the low-income brackets and for a program of slum clearance; and that we urge the importance, in congested communities, of independent and representative committees to study conditions and initiate action in the housing field.” “On the Housing Crisis,” Canadian Baptist, 1946.

• “Why should the Church be silent on this question? No longer does it belong in the region of the ‘Social Gospel’ so called. It is a question of life and death, morally and physically to many – far too many of our people who through no fault of their own, find themselves homeless today.” “The Housing Shortage and Morals,” Presbyterian Record, December 1946.

• “The conscience of our nation must be aroused and enraged against the woefully inadequate provision for men and women who risked all for freedom’s sake….As the babe in Bethlehem needed shelter that starlite night, even so let us provide shelter for the homeless, disillusioned young veterans who are convinced that there is no place like HOME.” “No Room at the Inn,” Presbyterian Record, December 1946.

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• “Decent housing is the nation’s greatest need. It is a source both of physical comfort and moral well-being. In any programme of national rehabilitation and reconstruction, the provision of homes for the people should have first consideration. It should take precedence over the building of public works, the development of national playgrounds or the construction of highways. These need not be neglected, but they should take secondary place to home construction, if the personal needs and well-being of the people is to be given their proper place.” Church, Nation, and World Order, 1944, 60.

 
Second, the basic assumption behind such commentary was that the churches had a role to play in calling the state to action. The churches were not experts on economics or housing planning, but they knew that people were suffering due to the neglect and/or incompetence of various levels of government and were convinced that someone had to speak into the situation.
 
As has been noted by scholars such as Phyllis Airhart and others,[1] the churches saw themselves as nation builders – meaning that, at times, they needed to speak prophetically against injustice. And the postwar housing crisis was deemed to be a grievous injustice felt mainly by the poor and struggling middle class, not to mention returning soldiers hoping for a fresh start after surviving the horrors of war.
 
Third, the commentary of the churches was remarkably well-informed. Perhaps the most researched and thoughtful response was the one formulated by the United Church and found in the publication Church, Nation, and World Order (this document is a stellar example of the depth of work needed by a church to speak intelligently to social and political issues).
 
Fourth, this commentary on housing was in the context of a larger concern for a host of social issues in Canada. For instance, the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec in 1946 had resolutions on housing, but also "postwar reconstruction," "world hunger," "temperance," “penal reform,” “social disintegration,” “churches and labour,” “loyalty to country and free institutions,” “toleration and fraternity,” “refugees and displaced persons,” the "United Nations," the "Vatican," and “guest speakers and hospitality.” Quite a roster for one assembly’s attention!
 
As we today in Canada face an appalling housing crisis, especially in areas close to major urban centres, we in the churches should think about how those before us in the past spoke to their housing crisis. Of course, being thoughtful and prophetic on such issues does not mean that various levels of government will listen (in fact, they often do not). Yet a thoughtful and winsome engagement with the issues of the day may just prick the conscience of some politicians enough to spur on a solution to the crisis. 
 
Yet despite whatever politicians do, addressing the issue shows that the churches’ love of neighbor has not diminished but remains a vital component of its ministry to its neighbors.


[1] Phyllis D. Airhart, “Ordering a Nation and Reordering Protestantism, 1867-1914,” In The Canadian Protestant Experience, 1760-1990, ed. George Rawlyk (Burlington: Welch, 1990), 98-138.