Report on housing needs across Nova Scotia expected by year’s end

Commissioned study will include data from the province’s 49 municipalities

Taryn Grant · CBC News 

A detailed portrait of Nova Scotia’s housing crisis is expected to be in the hands of top decision-makers by the end of this year.

The provincial government is commissioning a study to be completed over the next nine months that will collect data from each of Nova Scotia’s 49 municipalities.

The final report, due in December, will use information including rental vacancy rates, home prices, rates of homelessness, average incomes and a variety of other measures to make recommendations to politicians and bureaucrats about how to respond to housing needs in each community.

Some municipalities have already done similar studies of their own, including Truro, which, along with the rest of Colchester County, commissioned a housing needs assessment last year.

What mayors are looking for

Still, Mayor Bill Mills welcomed the new assessment by the province, taking it as a sign that provincial resources would follow.

“The question is going to really boil down to money,” said Mills.

He said he’s used to Halifax getting the lion’s share of attention — financial and otherwise — when it comes to housing, but he was heartened by an announcement from the provincial government on Thursday that it is sending emergency funding to shelters outside the capital, including one in Truro.

A homeless encampment at Meagher Park in Halifax. (Robert Short/CBC)

Seven shelters in total, from Bridgewater to Sydney, will each get $20,000 to bolster services and move people to hotels when beds are full this winter.

Mills said that help for shelters is a good stopgap, but doesn’t solve the bigger issue of inadequate housing supply, which he described as a “huge” problem in Truro, and a problem the town doesn’t have the power to address alone.

“I think there’s an answer out there,” he said. “It’s just, what’s one that fits for everybody?”

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Bridgewater was considering doing its own housing needs assessment when it learned about the province’s plans, said David Mitchell, the town’s mayor. That idea is on pause now, in the hopes that the report commissioned by the province will provide the answers Bridgewater is looking for.

Mitchell highlighted that towns with fewer than 10,000 people are at a disadvantage because their housing markets aren’t surveyed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation annually, as in larger towns and cities. That kind of information is needed to take effective action, he said.

“We don’t have an accurate picture, a clear picture of what the need is,” Mitchell said.

“Whether it’s people who are experiencing clear and direct homelessness, to those that are on the cusp of being able to purchase their first home, but not able to because of home prices.

“So it’s hard to know where we need to change our planning policies, whether it’s bonus density or working with the province or the feds to create incentive programs for affordable housing.”

Vulnerable groups prioritized

Not only will this study break down housing needs by municipality, but it will also look at the needs of a dozen demographic groups the province says it wants to prioritize:

• Survivors feeling domestic violence (especially women and children).
• Seniors.
• People with developmental disabilities.
• People with mental health and addictions issues.
• People with physical disabilities.
• Racialized people or communities.
• Newcomers.
• LGBTQ2+.
• Veterans.
• Indigenous people.
• Young adults.
• Homeless.

Ann de Ste Croix, the provincial co-ordinator of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, said she’s glad to see that breakdown, knowing homelessness is common among the people her organization serves: women experiencing and fleeing domestic violence.

She said women leaving abusive relationships are often forced to flee quickly, without important documentation or money. Those are factors that should be considered when addressing housing needs, she said.

“There are certain issues that go beyond the actual increase in affordable housing,” she said.

Feedback sought

de Ste Croix said she’s hoping her group will have the chance to share that kind of insight with whomever conducts this study for the province — and she may get that chance.

The province is calling for feedback from community surveys and stakeholder engagement to supplement the bare data.

The resulting report is expected to include a current snapshot, as well as forecasts of housing needs for more than a decade into the future.

The final report will be submitted to provincial officials, the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and the Association of Municipal Administrators of Nova Scotia.