Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath used Stratford as a backdrop Thursday to discuss the party's plan to make housing more affordable and attainable.
Horwath says the current housing market is destroying first time home buyer's ability to get into the market at all.
"It literally dashes people's dreams, creates a situation where folks can't live in the communities they were raised, they can't live in the neighbourhoods in which they were raised and they have to start to search far and wide to find an affordable place," stated Horwath.
Horwath says the NDP plan includes a way to help young people make a first down payment on a home.
"It's something we call a shared equity loan," explained Horwath. "It will provide 10 percent of the value of the property as a loan to first time home buyers who then do not have to pay that loan back until they sell the property or move out."
But she adds there are other problems that must be addressed.
"Foreign investors who are deep pocketed, corporations and the wealthiest people world wide really, are buying up houses in our Ontario communities with no intention whatsoever to live in them. Simply purchasing them as financial assets, not as true homes," said Horwath.
And Horwath says there needs to be a mix of housing to make it affordable for people.
