CHENDER: Nova Scotia’s housing policies are failing its residents

Nova Scotia has changed more in the past five years than it has in my lifetime. Our population is growing, there are cranes in the sky and the province is changing. While we see growth in our population, we also see the challenges of that growth: enormous strain on our institutions, our health care, our infrastructure and on housing.

Nova Scotia is in a housing crisis. This crisis is not just affecting the most vulnerable; it’s impacting the lives of working families, who, despite having two incomes, are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. It’s impacting seniors who thought they had done enough to have a stable, comfortable retirement. And it’s impacting young people and their parents, as new grads look for ways to leave home following their education. Across the province there are a growing number of people living in parks, in tents, in cars and on couches. It’s appalling that a province like ours – a province with so much opportunity, in a wealthy country like Canada – has so many people on the brink of losing their homes. This is a failure of policy and a lack of vision on the part of the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals before them.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We need to put homes back in reach for Nova Scotians by taking a multi-pronged approach to address this crisis. First, we need to significantly increase the housing supply with a clear focus on affordability. It’s not just about building more homes, it’s about building homes that people can actually afford. Recent projects like the Sunflower and True North Crescent in HRM have used panelized construction to quickly build affordable, efficient housing with low power bills due to high efficiency. We should increase our support of and investments in housing providers using this type of construction and the Maritime companies who produce housing panels for this construction.

While we work to enhance the housing supply, we must also take immediate steps to protect renters. With so little housing available, there is no other choice but to regulate the market so that Nova Scotian renters can afford to remain in their homes. What we have in place right now is not real rent control. It’s a rent cap, and it’s failing. Implemented as an emergency measure during the pandemic, this policy is easily bypassed through the use of fixed-term leases. As long as renters are only given the option to sign fixed-term leases instead of periodic ones, they have no guarantee of staying in their homes, and rents can increase unchecked.

Meanwhile, maintenance costs are rising along with everything else, and rents cannot stay static. But they can be regulated so that they happen in a stable and predictable manner. This is regulation that exists in other jurisdictions across the country and is a standard practice in non-market housing – including our own provincial housing. Why can’t we extend the same fairness to all renters in Nova Scotia? Rent increases should be tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and other relevant metrics, not to profit potential or what a highly distorted housing market will bear. This change would allow both renters and landlords to predict costs and maintain affordability.

Real rent control would close these loopholes and ensure that annual rent increases are predictable and fair. If landlords face extraordinary costs, they would still have the option to apply to the tenancy board for a justified increase. Along with tenancy enforcement, this would bring fairness to the rental market – fairness that has been lacking for far too long.

Housing is provincial jurisdiction, and it is time for the Houston government to step up. The NDP Homes Within Reach plan addresses these issues systematically. By rapidly creating more homes people can afford, supporting non-market and co-op housing providers, and implementing real rent control, we can begin to turn the tide.

The time for half-measures, Band-Aid solutions and pilot projects is over. Nova Scotians deserve a government that is committed to ensuring that a safe, stable, place to call home is within reach for all Nova Scotians. That young people and workers are able to stay and make a life here, that we treat our seniors with dignity, and that we have communities we can be proud of. The path forward is clear. We just need the political will to walk it.

Claudia Chender is the Leader of Nova Scotia’s New Democrats.