Core housing need: A household is said to be in 'core housing need' if its housing falls below at least one of the adequacy, affordability or suitability standards and it would have to spend 30% or more of its total before-tax income to pay the median rent of alternative local housing that is acceptable (meets all three housing standards).
Housing standards are defined as follow: Adequate housing is reported by their residents as not requiring any major repairs.
Affordable housing has shelter costs equal to less than 30% of total before-tax household income. Suitable housing has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of resident households according to National Occupancy Standard (NOS) requirements.
Only private, non-farm, non-reserve and owner- or renter-households with incomes greater than zero and shelter-cost-to-income ratios less than 100% are assessed for 'core housing need.'
Non-family households with at least one maintainer aged 15 to 29 attending school are considered not to be in 'core housing need' regardless of their housing circumstances. Attending school is considered a transitional phase, and low incomes earned by student households are viewed as being a temporary condition.