When I moved to Halifax in 2007, the first apartment I went to see was a $750 bachelor in the south end with no windows. The landlord told me he could put a window in “if I really needed one.” My friends and I joked about that experience for ages; it seemed ludicrous at the time.
This May, I started looking for an apartment for the first time in years. I had a near-impossible time finding listings on the peninsula within my budget. Friends told me about units in their buildings, but many of them were converted into Airbnbs once the tenants moved out.
One place was out of my price range but I was desperate, so I scheduled a viewing. It was a basement with ceilings so low I nearly hit my head on the exposed pipes (I’m 5’6″). There were two windows: a tiny one in the shower and another small one in the bedroom that got no light because it was under a patio. It was listed for $1,250 a month (not including utilities). That $750 windowless bachelor was looking pretty decent now.
I saw 14 apartments in a few days. A handful of those had cockroaches. I was told that the ones I applied for had been rented within hours.
Finally, I found a place in Fairview. It was cute (as long as you ignored the “DIE” graffiti outside) and affordable. It was a four-month lease—not ideal, but would give me time to find something for September. Then the issues started immediately: I didn’t have a functioning fridge for the first week. The kitchen backed up and flooded with grey water. It flooded a second time shortly after—they had nailed the baseboards into a pipe during renovations. The list went on.
Feeling defeated, I emailed a realtor in the middle of having a panic attack at the thought of apartment hunting again. I had money saved but didn’t think it was realistically enough for a down payment for another few years. I felt hopeless with renting, though, and needed to explore my options.
My friends and I often talk about how it’s an awful cycle: Mortgages can be cheaper but rent is too high to save money for a down payment. Despite being 30 with a decent salary, I wasn’t able to save the full amount needed on my own because of how much of my paycheque went to rent each month. My family helped with the remainder needed for the down payment and I am so grateful and privileged to have that option, because I know it’s not one for most.
Many of my friends are debating whether to go through the stress of finding a new place they likely can’t afford, or stay in their cheap rundown apartments (one had no functioning toilet for two and a half weeks. They’re staying because the rent hasn’t increased since the first MCU movie). Others are where I was recently—going to too many viewings and competing with seemingly the entire city for a place to live.
We have to admit that the rental situation in this city is unsustainable. We need more affordable long-term rental options that aren’t cockroach-infested windowless basement apartments, and we need them soon because I’m sick of having friends give up and move away.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2019.
Not saying she’s lying, but I think this story is definitely not the norm for Halifax (yet, anyway). The last year I rented a 2-bedroom in the West end for $830. The year before, a bachelor in the south end, steps from downtown for $825. The year before that, another bachelor downtown right on Barrington for $785, none were perfect but they were all lovely apartments and found in September when rent is notoriously low. It sounds like the writer was looking in May, when usually there is a plethora of apartments to be sublet from all the students heading home for the summer. It IS getting harder to find apartments and rents are going up, but $750 for a bachelor with no windows and $1250 for a dark one bedroom seems more like the situation they have in Toronto or New York, not here. Hopefully the city stems the flow of converting long term apartments to AirBnBs so it doesn’t get that bad.
I agree, there are many slumlords out there but not all are bad but if you’re looking for safe, you spend more (usually) and if you’re looking for comfort forget about it especially if you’re living next to older couples, or ppl who dont like kids if you’re a mother or parents looking for places to rent.
Alot of people who dont pay their rent and get booted out because of unforeseen events and habits or noise complaints, usually ruin it for the quieter crowd which increases rent because its an unenjoyable environment.
Everyone wants affordable housing but when you’re called a riffraff which I’ve actually heard some landlords call ppl. It makes you wonder if its increased on purpose just to sell to the ones who’s pockets are deeper than those on assistance. Again, reducing the affordable housing option because not only is rent 4 times it’s worth in many places, its sickening.
And if that’s not bad enough theres places that actually want a credit check done which also runs it because unless u have money up the hoo hoo and wear fancy clothes they wont even look at you none the less look at your application.
It should be regulated by however many bedrooms and appliances offered. I heard the other day a friend of mine pays less than 1050 a month. 2 bedroom, huge bathroom, decent size livingroom, walk through kitchen with a dishwasher and! A washer and dryer in unit….
I’m paying 1085 plus I pay for my laundry (coinomatic) which averages about 60 a month because the machines always fail, dont spin or never dry. At 4.50 a wash& dry it gets expensive.
I have no dishwasher, my fridge freezes and my stove us older than my grandmother. The lights flicker everytime I turn my hot water kettle on and if anything it’s not worth 1085 with no balcony. But its expected to get to regulated standards? Or 1180????
Sure I’m on a bus route but…. I’m also off the highway, live next to a convenience store and ppl walk by my window all the time looking in.
It’s just comfort over quality? When it should be comfort and quality
To combat PortWallaces comment, my experience last year was similar. It took 5 months to find a dog friendly apartment. Its over budget. I want to buy a house, but the only place we could find was way more than we should spend ($1350+util), so there goes any chance of saving for a down payment. We moved to Fairview in the end because the peninsula prices were outrageous.
This year, we looked again to see if we could find something cheaper. I thought last year was bad. Wow. Was I wrong! Were forced to stay where we are, in a place we can barely afford, because somehow every dog friendly unit is now $1500+. And no, our lease is Nov 1, not May or Sept. But I can guarantee if any of those places PortWallace mentioned are available now, they are absolutely not those prices anymore.
Something needs to change! And great article addressing these important issues!
In 2007 I rented a 2-bedroom on Lacewood Dr. for $1050/month, utilities included and even a washer/dryer in the units. Each bedroom had a walk-in closet and we had a massive living room and dining room. Filling all of the space with furniture was more a problem. Finding it was easy. Unfortunately — anecdotal evidence tells us nothing, much like astrology.
Less time watching wrestling and more time learning things will yield an understanding that this issue is prevalent across Canada (and the US) and has been written about ad nauseam for years.
One such article has a nice graph showing Halifax ranked 19th in “wage needed to afford a 1-bedroom apartment”. Link:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ccpa-rents-minimum-wage-1.5216258
I realize that “Apartment hunting in Halifax is the 19th worst” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
The call to action at the end is hilarious. Who is “we”? Everyone admits housing is a problem. Have you read anything about the west cost?
It’s obvious you love to complain — but here you are essentially complaining about the way an economy functions under Capitalism. Do you have some policy proposals that could help mitigate this problem? Are you advocating for subsidized housing? Mandatory minimum wages? A more heavily regulated rental market? Anything at all?
Maybe Iron Man 7 will have the answers.
Jessielawrence8 this has absolutely nothing to do with dogs. Zero. Nobody cares about your dog problem. Seriously. Don’t even go there. The “landlords not renting to the dog people” has been going on since dogs became a “thing” that everyone must do. Long time ago – long LONG before there was any such thing as a housing crisis. Old news. This is about people trying to find a place to live in a little port town which has been sucked into the global economy vortex over a slick of nincompoop city councilors at least one of whom has publicly proclaimed his glee about this rental crisis because it means this city is just doing so damned good, and all of whom think somehow that this is the city of Toronto.
This is about people who DON’T make 50 grand a year trying to find a place that doesn’t REQUIRE 50 grand a year, which no longer exists. It puts a lot of people into the homeless category if they don’t completely throw their dignity out the window and allow themselves to live among rats and cockroaches, backed up sinks and non-functioning toilets. It’s a REAL problem with absolutely no solutions. It’s about long term sustained suffering with no end in sight, and it’s about the encroachment of 3rd world problems into what was supposed to be a 1st world nation.
You injecting this “dog” thing into this particular conversation is like jumping into the middle of an online brain cancer support forum and complaining that the paint on your Infinity isn’t keeping it’s luster for all the polishing you do. It just doesn’t belong here.
Forget the dog if you want an apartment. Try coop housing.
I read this article and of course agreed with it. What shocked me was that this article was from August 2019. That’s 7 months before the event that caused the world and Halifax to change considerably. I am of course talking about the the Covid shutdowns of March 2020
Rent is now considerably higher after covid.