Discussion, political action, and cooperation is required now to implement an Affordable Housing Work Plan for our region.
Affordable housing emergency
Waye Mason, HRM councillor, has expressed the opinion that the market alone will not solve the housing crisis.
The 2015 Halifax Housing and Homelessness Partnership study showed 20 per cent of residents cannot afford market price rental housing. Halifax’s population has grown nine per cent over the last five years. The number of people who need below-market housing continues to grow with the population, and the number of affordable units has not grown with demand. The market will not solve this problem. Unlike many municipalities in much of the rest of the country, housing in Nova Scotia is delivered by the province. Many other provinces chose to fund municipalities to deliver housing, but that has not been the case in Nova Scotia since 1996. As a result, the Metro Regional Housing Authority is a provincial entity and new affordable units are almost exclusively built at the direction of the province while most federal money goes to the province, not to Halifax1
Affordable housing policy
Housing is increasingly becoming a commodity or a financialized asset. One of the main factors leading to commodification of housing is the growing role of finance in traditionally non- financial sectors such as real estate where housing becomes a publicly traded commodity. In Canada, this phenomenon has resulted in what is known as Real Estate Investment Trusts or REITs. REITs pool the capital of multiple investors to own, operate or finance income-generating real estate. Investors can receive returns on their investments without needing the expertise to buy or manage any properties themselves.
Investment opportunity?
A policy paper by ACORN Canada, a multi-issue, membership-based community union of low- and moderate-income people, reports the rapid growth of REITs is creating and fueling the existing housing crisis.
ACORN recently conducted research[4] to investigate the business practices adopted by CAPREIT - Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust - the largest REIT in Canada. The report shows that CAPREIT is making 14,216 units of their most affordable housing stock each year way less affordable by flipping the unit, essentially making it no longer affordable to many[5]. As compared to this, the National Co-Investment fund as part of the National Housing Strategy is investing $13.2 billion over 10 years to create 60,000 affordable housing units. This means that federal taxpayer money, through the National CoInvestment fund, will spend $13.2 billion to build 60,000 units of affordable housing in Canada, or $220,000 to create each unit. Each year the co-investment fund builds 6000 units and CAPREIT alone flips approximately 14,000 units to get the maximum rent possible, pulling them away from affordability2
The direction suggested by Councillor Mason for non market housing development and consideration of the effects of REITs in the housing market are urgent areas of investigation to bring justice and equity to our housing emergency.
References
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