A Generation Without a Future
At Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region, we’ve always focused on two things: affordable homeownership and families.
If you’re a housing nerd like me, you’ve probably been following the swirl of commentary and research on both. If you’re not, let me catch you up.
A few weeks ago, an article in The Globe and Mail sparked a lot of discussion. It highlighted research that, frankly, is unsettling. Across the world, more and more people are disengaging from work, from relationships, from planning for their futures. An entire generation is quietly checking out.
And housing sits right at the centre of it.
When homeownership feels impossible, the research shows something deeply troubling. People begin to withdraw.
A 2024 Ipsos poll found that 72 percent of people who do not already own a home have given up on the idea entirely. They no longer believe it will happen for them. That is not just discouraging. It is a five-alarm fire.
For generations, there has been an unspoken social contract. Work hard. Build a life. Own a home. Create stability for your family.
When people no longer see a link between effort and outcome, they begin to question whether the system works at all. If hard work does not lead to the future you hoped for, or even to basic security, it becomes difficult to stay motivated. It is fair to ask why anyone would keep pushing when the reward feels permanently out of reach.
It’s cynical. It’s sad. And it’s hard to dismiss.
Without hope for the future, the present starts to erode.
At the same time, another issue is emerging. We don’t just have a housing supply problem. We have a product problem.
Specifically, bedrooms.
There’s no shortage of commentary about what’s wrong with housing. But more and more people are noticing what Habitat has been saying for years. We need homes built for families. We need three or more bedrooms. We need space for kids to grow.
We are in a housing crisis, and yet we see condo towers in Toronto and even here in Waterloo Region sitting empty. Why?
Because many of those units weren’t built for people. They were built for investors. Now that investors are pulling back, families aren’t moving in because those units don’t meet their needs.
A single person or a couple can make a small condo work. It’s a lot to ask a family of four or five to raise children in a one-bedroom box in the sky. So even when prices soften, the mismatch remains. The supply doesn’t match the demand.
And while I’ve been talking about bedrooms for years, others are seeing it too. Mike Moffatt and the Missing Middle Initiative have been highlighting the same issue.
In a recent Toronto Star article, Moffatt wrote, “We analyzed population shifts in southern Ontario and found that the single strongest predictor of where families with children under five choose to live is the growth of ownership housing with three or more bedrooms. Families want a home they can own, with enough bedrooms for their children and space for them to play.”
Exactly.
It’s simple. It’s obvious. And yet we’ve been building something else.
We need solutions that actually match the problem. We need family housing. We need ownership housing with bedrooms. Most of all, we need to bring hope back into the housing conversation.
We need to show the 72 percent who have already given up that ownership is not a fantasy. That they can build stability. That they can raise a family. That the future they were promised is still possible.
And we need to move quickly.
Because if we don’t, we risk losing not just buyers in a housing market, but an entire generation’s belief that the future is worth working for.
-Philip Mills
Philip Mills, CEO Habitat Waterloo Region
