Recent tragic events in our Province bring our housing crisis to the forefront of our concerns. The resolution of this emergency situation calls for urgent bold action from the Provincial Government.
The prospect of another winter of people living in tents should be a serious incentive to provide housing relief and avoid increasing the costs of healthcare and reduction of access to health resources that neglect of these needs will incur.
Sam Austin, HRM councillor, asks how can we fix a problem though when there seems to be little interest on the other side of the table?
The Premier says “go like hell” on healthcare, and “it’ll cost what it’ll cost” on the Tantallon fire, but when it comes to homelessness there is no urgency, little interest, and little commitment, even as the crisis on our streets gets worse. The only thing on housing that the PCs seem interested in is ensuring developer’s get fast approvals for housing that is needed, but that also won’t help anyone at the bottom of the income spectrum. The people who the Province abandoned on June 1 won’t be housed in market housing. The stark difference between what the Premier actually considers a crisis and how homelessness is being handled is striking. (Austin, 2023)
Skye Bryden-Blom of Global News reports on university students who were forced out of a Halifax apartment and how they worry about steep housing costs. Daria Oanes is one of many students whose fixed-term lease is not being renegotiated.
“We pay to go to school here,” Oanes says. “So we have to be here, we have to find a place to live.” (Bryden, 2023)
Service Nova Scotia, the department which oversees the Residential Tenancies Act, says it’s unfortunate landlords are doing this as it’s not the purpose of the fixed-term leases, which are designed for tenants who are staying short-term.
The executive director of the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, Michael Kabalen, says the only real way to fix the problem is more housing.
“The only real solution to the housing crisis is more housing, as quickly as possible, and in particular meaningful investments in forever affordable housing by governments, either through grants and loans to not-for-profit developers or by building it themselves as a public good.” (Bryden, 2023)
Michael Gorman of CBC News reports that deputy housing minister Paul Lafleche told members of the legislature's public accounts committee that the level of need for market rate housing and affordable units is such that all options must be considered. That could mean the provincial government building new affordable housing stock for the first time in years.
"We probably need some new public housing," Lafleche told the MLAs.
For years, the housing file has suffered from a lack of consistent people in leadership roles and being shuffled between government departments, Lafleche said. (Gorman, 2023)
The protesters at a Halifax housing rally, as reported by Zane Woodford, in the Halifax Examiner called for more non-market homes, no fixed-term leases, real rent control. Sam Krawec, a co-organizer of the rally, read an open letter to Premier Tim Houston’s PC government. Krawec called on the government to immediately build more non-market housing, create permanent rent control with a 3% cap, and abolish fixed-term leases.
“Landlords have been using fixed-term leases as a loophole to get out of their responsibilities towards tenants, avoid the rent cap, and sidestep the eviction process,”
“So long as this loophole exists, tenant rights will be continually under threat and profit-driven landlords will continue to abuse their power.” (Woodford, 2023)
Christine Saulnier, director of the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told the crowd that weak protections for tenants during the housing crisis means landlords are exploiting tenants.
“The lack of protection ensures that tenants are beholden to landlords. It leaves the power in their hands and leaves tenants in stress because they ultimately do not know what will happen to their housing at any time,”
“We have successive governments who have been unwilling to rebalance the power relationship. Instead we hear explicitly from Premier Houston that he needs to balance people’s right to housing with a landlord’s ability to profit.” (Woodford, 2023)
Saulnier said Nova Scotia needs 50,000 units of non-market housing to meet demand.
“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have successive government dropping the ball,” “It is not surprising or shocking that we are here in this crisis. We told them so. We know what the solutions are and we’ve known them for decades.” (Woodford, 2023)
The call for action to create more non-market homes, eliminate fixed-term leases, and initiate real rent control is a necessary emergency response by the government to the current situation where the right of people to suitable housing is imposing life diminishing stress. Adequate housing is one of the social determinants of health. When people cannot find housing, the health care system experiences additional demand that negatively impacts cost and availability for all Nova Scotians.
References
Austin, S. (2023, June 8). Shelter Closure. Sam Austin. Retrieved June 8, 2023, from https://samaustin.ca/shelter-closure/
Bryden, S. (2023, March 17). University students forced out of Halifax apartment worry about steep housing costs - Halifax | Globalnews.ca. Global News. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://globalnews.ca/news/9560711/dalhousie-students-renters-halifax-fixed-rate-loophole/
Gorman, M. (2023, January 25). N.S. government to consider proposal that includes new public housing. CBC. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/affordable-housing-government-private-sector-development-1.6726190
Woodford, Z. (2023, April 5). Halifax housing rally calls for more non-market homes, no fixed-term leases, real rent control. Halifax Examiner. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/housing/priced-out/halifax-housing-rally-calls-for-more-non-market-homes-no-fixed-term-leases-real-rent-control/
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