The Ford and Trudeau governments are fighting about housing. What’s at stake?

As politicians duke it out over the terms of federal housing money in Ontario, behind the scenes some are hoping a deal can be made.

Tensions between the Trudeau and Ford governments on the housing file have been high in recent weeks, with arguments over affordable housing, fourplexes and municipal oversight.

Most recently, Ottawa dangled a $6-billion carrot in front of cities and provinces across the country, telling them if they met a number of conditions — including allowing four-unit buildings as of right — they could have a bite.

The condition is one Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly ruled out, talking about the backlash politicians who introduce too much density to the suburbs would face.

As the argument between the two levels of government continues, however, housing advocates say it is distracting from the real issues.

“I don’t really care who does the work. We need to get the three levels of government working together,” Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, told Global News.

“The longer they keep fighting each other over who does what, or spending enough or not spending enough, that means we’re not getting housing built.”

Cracks in the relationship between the two governments began to show when federal Housing Minister Sean Freaser wrote to his Ontario counterpart, Paul Calandra, telling him specific affordable housing funds would be stopped.

Fraser told Calandra there was an “urgent need” for Ontario to revise its outline of how it planned to spend federal money for affordable housing. Under the National Housing Strategy Action Plan, initially signed in 2018, the province has to show how it will spend federal dollars to expand affordable housing.

Ontario’s plan to do that,