After arriving as a Somali refugee, Ahmed Hussen lived with his brother in a subsidized Regent Park apartment, where he got a zeal for the task Justin Trudeau has assigned to him: make housing more affordable, and make more affordable housing available. thestar.com/politics/feder…
“I could never have been able to afford paying for a market rental unit and going to university at the same time as a new refugee to Canada, so I know the importance of that," said newly-named Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen. thestar.com/politics/feder… 
Hussen, a lawyer and former head of the Canadian Somali Congress, was first elected as an MP in 2015. Now in his third ministerial role, he is setting out to make a difference in Canada’s housing crisis. thestar.com/politics/feder…
Hussen talks a mile a minute about his plans, which cover the gamut of the Liberals’ election promises on housing — an area Opposition parties also campaigned hard on and where the Liberals may find some common ground in the minority Parliament ahead. thestar.com/politics/feder…
He wants to expand the subsidized, non-profit or co-op housing supply; to end chronic homelessness; to help younger and first-time home buyers get into the ownership market. His first order of business is to bring in the promised homebuyers’ bill of rights.thestar.com/politics/feder…
Hussen is the first housing minister Canada has had in nearly three decades, said Cathy Crowe, a visiting practitioner at Ryerson University’s department of politics and a longtime street nurse, but she is skeptical of the Liberals’ intentions. thestar.com/politics/feder…
Cathy Crowe says what’s needed is a “fully-funded national housing stream that would include new builds that could be done by co-operatives, municipalities, by not-for-profits, that would be ideally matched by provinces, the way daycare’s being proposed.” thestar.com/politics/feder…
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