Affordable Housing - QP
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Let's talk about housing. While the Premier maintains that increasing supply alone will fix our housing crisis, the tents across the province, the seniors being forced out of their apartments, and the families being priced out of this province tell a different story.
Despite an improvement in rental housing completions last year, the vacancy rate is unchanged: 1 per cent, and homelessness has tripled. When is this government going to recognize and prioritize the need for truly affordable housing?
THE PREMIER « » : This is a serious issue. I know the member and I have a philosophical difference on the housing situation. I firmly believe that the solution to a housing crisis is more housing across the spectrum. That's why we did the province's first - I think it's the first, but it's certainly a first in a long time - housing strategy, where we understand the need for 40,000 units over additional ones. That is also why, under the work of the minister, we see the first investment in over 20 years in public housing. That's action. It's why we see the first investments in making over 17,000 additional affordable units. We are getting to work, rolling up our sleeves, and getting it done, and we'll continue to do so.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Our philosophical difference is on the scale of effort required to address the affordable housing that we need, which we are losing much faster than the government cares to replace it. One housing scholar calculated that Halifax alone is losing as many as 31 affordable units per week. I'll table that. The wait-list for public housing across the province is nearly 5,000.
Those 247 units that might be built someday in the next several years will not make a dent. We're talking about a few months of loss of affordable housing units. The Pallet units and the shelters aren't going to make a dent either, because they're not housing. We need to protect the housing we have, and the programs in place are not moving fast enough. This is a Premier who wants to move quickly . . .
THE SPEAKER « » : Question.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : What is the plan for the 31 households a week that are losing housing?
THE PREMIER « » : There is work to be done. There will always be work to be done, but I wonder if the member opposite thinks that the $1.7-billion investment we're making in housing will make a dent. I think it will. We know we need to increase the housing supply. We know we need sustainable, affordable housing, but that's why we're getting to work. That's why you see investments in student housing at the Nova Scotia Community College campuses. That's why you see it working with institutions like Cape Breton University on their student housing. This is also why you see subdivisions being - because we need housing across the spectrum.
It all plays together, and we are serious about making the investments. We're doing more of it tomorrow in the budget again.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : The work isn't working, Speaker. A recent report found that rents in Halifax increased an average of 11.9 per cent in 2023, described as the highest single-year increase. While the Premier's been supercharging development in HRM, spending our money like water, and ignoring the real rent and eviction controls needed to keep people housed, affordability has declined steeply, and so have vacancy rates. Even in affordable buildings, when tenants move out or are forced to move or made to sign a fixed-term lease, rents go up, way up, and increasingly, this is a province where young people and families are priced out.
When will the Premier protect current tenants so that they can remain in homes they can afford while waiting for the trickle-down housing the Premier has promised?
THE PREMIER « » : Obviously, the member might not want to acknowledge that those supports are in place. Those investments are happening. I heard something I never thought I'd hear. I heard the NDP member talk about spending money like water. It's actually investments in Nova Scotians. We are investing in Nova Scotians.
We won't apologize for it, and we're not ashamed of it, and we will do a heck of a lot more of it starting again tomorrow. These are investments that Nova Scotians want to see. If the member has an issue with them, she can tell us which ones not to do, because we saw from the NDP government, when they were there, how not to invest in Nova Scotians. We learned the lesson and we're making things happen for Nova Scotians right now.