By Katrina Pyne, Staff Contributor
Tents flapped against the cold wind in the Commons on Saturday as part of the Tent City protest, demanding affordable housing in Halifax. The Common Front for Housing (CFH) organized the event, which included a rally followed by workshops and discussions, dinner, music and an open mic.
The CFH is asking that 25 per cent of all housing built in the province is designated as affordable housing, and they want the immediate construction of 3,000 social housing units to eliminate the province-wide public housing waiting list. They also want to see the province re-establish rent control, improve the existing Residential Tenancy legislation, and reinstate the Federal Co-operative Housing Program (FCHP), which was cut in 1991.
Most importantly, they want the federal government to reestablish a National Housing Strategy.
“There is a serious housing problem in the HRM, and most of the pressure of that is on people who have modest and low incomes,” says Howard Epstein, an NDP MLA for Halifax who attended Tent City.
He says there are several key challenges key to the housing crisis in Halifax, and believes a national and provincial housing strategy should be a priority.
“There is a significant mismatch between the housing component of income assistance and prevailing rental rates and that’s a major problem here,” says Epstein.
At the moment, HRM is trying to severely limit their role in housing. Epstein says that in terms of affordable housing they see their role as limited to zoning, what he says is a “rudimentary approach.”
Allen Oop, 24, has been in Halifax for 5 years. “They just expect you to go wherever the houses are. It doesn’t matter where your family, or your work or school is,” he says. “There are lots of half-hearted, weak attempts to solve this issue, and lots of lip service.”
Jocelyne Tranquilla, who is on the organizing committee of Common Front for Housing, spoke at the event. She says that there are 1,447 applications on the waiting list for public housing in HRM alone, according to a Dec. 2009 statistic. This also does not take into account that each application usually has more than 1 person attached to it.
Dan Troke is the executive director for Nova Scotia’s Employment Support and Income Assistance Program through the province’s Department of Community Services. He says there is a continuum of options available to individuals seeking affordable housing in Halifax. Troke says that the vacancy rate of housing in the HRM is between 2 and 3.5 per cent, and that development increases with housing demand. The provincial government has provided 12,000 units of housing with another 6,000 on the go through non-profit sectors. Troke also recognizes that individuals in Halifax have the ability to apply for financial assistance across several programs, not just income assistance, to find or maintain their housing in Halifax.
“The safety net is always there,” says Troche. “There are always options for individuals.”
Troke later commented that there are more individuals in the housing market than they can currently meet the needs for.
Judy Deal writes for Street Feat, Atlantic Canada’s first street newspaper. She attended Tent City to tell others of her own struggle to find affordable housing in Halifax.
“It’s hard for somebody to find a one bedroom apartment in a half-decent area that’s not infested with bugs or mice, or where the ceilings aren’t leaking.” Next year, Judy is going to have to find another place to live because she cannot afford to stay in her current residence.
“The women owning it must think I’m rich, the rent just keeps going up and up,” says Deal. “It just costs too much to live here.”
Recent Comments