The start of Tuesday’s city council meeting was spicy. Councillors came in hot. Councillors like Tim Outhit, Sam Austin and Lisa Blackburn were all visibly upset about the growing scale of human suffering that’s being caused by government inaction on housing. Council got an update about just how badly Haligonians are being failed by all levels of our government.
Make no mistake, we have been failed—catastrophically so.
Max Chauvin, the city’s director of housing and homelessness, told council that there are 30,000 households in the HRM that are spending more than they can afford on housing. Those 30,000 households are spending at least 30% of their income on housing, with some spending over 50%. Chauvin told council in no uncertain terms that there is no private solution to the crisis—that it can only be solved by a massive public investment in housing. All the city can do, he lamented, is apply immediate and imperfect band-aids.
Councillor Shawn Cleary pointed out that for other emergencies the city dips into its reserves and spends millions to get people out of the emergency they find themselves in. He pointed out the city doesn’t do that for housing, and the tiny amounts of money the city does kick in—tens of thousands of dollars at a time—don’t have any effect. Cleary doesn’t think the city should be spending good money after bad just to put people outside in time for the start of a climate changed hurricane season.
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“We have to embarrass them into doing something,” said councillor Lisa Blackburn at the end of her time, which was filled with latent anger directed at the province. She proposed that the HRM put everyone on the Common, declare a disaster and get the Red Cross to come in and deal with it—because maybe, just maybe, if the Red Cross came to town, Houston might do his “bloody job.”
“If we’re not going to do this, then what?” asked deputy mayor Sam Austin. He pointed out that if the city doesn’t do anything, people will suffer. Austin wants to force Houston’s hand and make the province do its fucking job: “It’s time to sue them.”
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In an emergency—fires, floods or hurricanes—the city opens up its arenas and community centres until people can go back to their homes. If councillors genuinely believe the housing crisis is an emergency, they could treat it like one.
Instead, council voted to direct the CAO to start trying to lease private buildings for shelter space, put encampments on available municipal land, allow non-park land (like parking lots) to be used for people to live in cars—and they wrote a strongly worded letter to Houston (who they previously established doesn’t care about them).
Council is also looking at buying a bunch of mini-homes or prefabricated shelters. But the city has no money, so this idea will likely disappear at some point during municipal budget season when councillors realize the city’s flat broke due to generations of bad, low-density development.
Make no mistake, we are being failed—catastrophically so.
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This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2023.
I can remember back in the 1960’s & 70’s, there were several low rental housing projects started or completed including Mulgrave Park, Greystone in Spryfield, another one off Bayers Road as well as the one in Uniacke Square. Rents were income based and we lived in one for one year in 1963 (a young family at the time with 3 children and one wage earner). We paid $57 a month for a 3 bedroom townhouse. This is what we need again today. A large project with hundreds of units, built exclusively for the use of low income families. Not allowing the private developers to secure the available land to build these high rental units. We need several more Seniors complexes for the hundreds of Seniors on waiting lists needing low cost housing as well. CLM (an 80 year old living just above poverty level)
I reported my landlord for substandard living conditions, I couldn’t use my bathtub, I couldn’t use my oven, My kitchen lights didn’t work, My ceiling collapsed in two different places because of leaks And my carpet stunk from the moistenest from the leaks. 50% of my income goes to rent And i’m forced to live like i’m camping in my own home. Meanwhile my landlord is in a different country living in a five bedroom house. Three days after the city contacted my landlord to do repairs i received that in a eviction notice and have been fighting To keep my place for over a year. My landlord lied to the courts and fabricated Excuses to get me out because my landlord is mad i stood up for my rights and wanted repairs done. I just wanted to live like a normal person. I’m going to be homeless for the winter. Everything own is at jeopardy because I work from home and if I lose my home. I lose my job. So how will I pay for storage? I didn’t work my entire life to lose it all over greed. My situation has me contemplating suicide. I’m not starting over it was hard enough to get where I’m at. I’m done fighting…