Tackling Housing Insecurity in Nova Scotia

BY DR. CATHERINE LEVITEN-REID AND CHRISTINE SAULNIER

The pandemic has fundamentally affected our social and economic systems and has uncovered just how deep the crises in our systems run. We must do better than returning to a pre-pandemic Nova Scotia. Before the pandemic, many Nova Scotians were struggling to make ends meet, uncertain about how they would pay next month’s rent or power bill. Many were going without food or rationing because they had to use their food money as their only ‘discretionary’ money to ensure they did not lose the roof over their heads.

Indeed, as is outlined in a new report, many thousands are currently without any place to call their own, living on the streets, couch surfing or staying in shelters. Others are in accommodations that they cannot afford, or which are not safe, adequate or properly maintained. For others, there is a lack of accessible housing that accommodates their needs to live barrier-free. As housing becomes even more unaffordable in areas located close to employment, services and amenities, it pushes many out of their communities, isolating them.

So many Nova Scotians are housing insecure: they have very little protection to support them to stay in their current housing situation in the face of evictions and rising rents, or even to move to a more suitable location. Housing insecurity leads to increased stress, social exclusion, illness, and disease. That is why this new report proposes 95 recommendations, on which 48 individuals and organizations across Nova Scotia came to consensus, for how to address the homelessness and affordable housing crisis.

The report is a principled roadmap that gets at the root causes of the crisis; we can’t just address the lack of supply with piecemeal temporary solutions in the for-profit market. We must ensure that government massively invests in nonmarket housing (co-operative, non-profit and public/social) through both new builds and acquisitions. What is required is enough non-market housing for the just over 32,000 Nova Scotians who cannot afford their housing and are at risk of losing it.

The rental market in this province has become very attractive to financialized landlords because of the lack of rent control and other mechanisms to control profiting off housing, such as implementing the government’s right of first purchase when rental units are put up for sale. Stronger regulations are needed for permanent rent control, but also for shortterm rentals, and for condominium builds and conversions. Moreover, tenants deserve stronger protections that will be proactively enforced, so they are not vulnerable to those who have the power to take their shelter away without a full hearing and access to legal support and representation, and supported by tenant associations.

The crisis is not just about the lack of affordable housing, it is also about a lack of income - 24.2% of renters have household incomes below$20,000. It is also about a lack of services, and discrimination.

We recommend: substantially increasing income assistance to bring people to the poverty line, raising the minimum wage, and ensuring addictions and mental health services are available. African Nova Scotians have faced dispossession of their land and we owe it to them to ensure housing solutions address continuing racism as well as the legacy of enslavement. Indigenous renters living off-reserve lack affordable housing, in good condition, and safe and appropriate supports.

People deserve housing AND the supports needed to remain in their homes, whether that is wrap around 24/7 care, or minimal navigation and advocacy help. There are hundreds of people with disabilities unnecessarily institutionalized in our province—a gross violation of human rights.

Housing is a human right. It is time we ensure that everyone in Nova Scotia has a housing secure future, which is critical for their health and our collective community’s well-being.

REFERENCES:

Findlay, T., Saulnier, C. and Stratford, A., 2021. Are you with us?. [online] Available at: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/ publications/reports/are-you-us

Housing for All Working Group, 2021. Keys to a housing secure future for all Nova Scotians. [online] Halifax: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Available at: https://www. policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/keys-housingsecure-future-all-nova-scotians

DR. CATHERINE LEVITEN-REID is an associate professor in the MBA in Community Economic Development program at Cape Breton University. Currently leading a national, SSHRCCMHC partnership grant on affordable housing, her research is focused on housing, community development, the social economy, and social care.

CHRISTINE SAULNIER is the director of the Nova Scotia branch of Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-NS).

CCPA is a non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Leviten- Reid and Saulnier have served as co-leads of the CCPA-NS Housing for All Working Group.

A version of this article was previously published by CCPA-NS in the September/October 2021 issue of Monitor magazine.