Halifax

Government housing strategy isn’t working, public accounts committee told

Government housing officials faced a barrage of questions Wednesday from opposition MLAs about inadequate housing starts, soaring rents, a dearth of affordable housing and homelessness in the province.

Zach Churchill, the Liberal and Opposition leader, said the Progressive Conservative government’s five-year housing strategy is not working.

“Clearly, there are insufficiencies in the government plan,” Churchill told the legislative public accounts committee. “The plan is heavily reliant on market forces. The rent cap obviously isn’t working, we have the highest rental increases in the country, the highest increases we’ve seen since the 1970s.

“I’m concerned that we don’t have a timeline on (housing) supply, we have no analysis on how the special planning areas are actually going to increase the speed in which we are going to build more homes, more apartment units.”

Byron Rafuse, deputy minister of the Municipal Affairs and Housing Department and Vicki Elliott-Lopez, chairwoman of the housing task force for Halifax Regional Municipality, fielded the questions and criticisms.

Rafuse said the government strategy is outlined in its five-year plan, referring to the Our Homes, Action for Housing document that the government unveiled on Oct. 23 in conjunction with an independent report done for government that assessed the housing needs of the province.

$1-billion investment

The five-year government plan represents a projected $1-billion investment and highlights targets to create the conditions for more than 40,000 new housing units from one end of the province to the other.

The assessment report, led by Turner Drake, estimated that at the current pace of construction, which brings about 6,000 units to market each year, there will be a shortage of 41,200 housing units by 2027-28 if aggressive action is not taken.

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Byron Rafuse, deputy minister of the Municipal Affairs and Housing Department, speaks with reporters after a public accounts committee meeting this month. – Francis Campbell

“We will intervene and try to encourage more and faster development,” Rafuse said of the housing strategy.

“There are programs to allow for more affordable housing to be developed with partners in the not-for-profit area, there are aspects that address both home ownership and rentals.”

In the rental area, “the government has been quite clear that we’re continuing on with the rent cap,” Rafuse said.

“It’s been extended for a couple of more years. Those aspects, while the market adjusts and supply can come on stream, are the tools that the government will continue to use. We are not finished. There will be more things that we have to look at and will adjust accordingly. The plan talks about being nimble and we will adjust and move forward and find more ways to partner with those who are interested in finding affordable housing.”

In a news release issued before Wednesday’s meeting, the Liberals said the government’s temporary housing task force, struck in November 2021 to facilitate faster planning and developing approvals for large residential projects for HRM, has failed to deliver results Nova Scotians desperately need.

“While more Nova Scotians find themselves without a place to call home, the Houston government has been focused on gaining political control through a backdoor housing task force,” Churchill said, referring to the increasing number of tents popping up across HRM. 

Planning areas

In response to questions about an analysis of the task force’s effectiveness, Elliott-Lopez defended the designated special planning areas the task force identifies for rapid developments in HRM. 

“Developers still work very closely with HRM, they go through all of the required studies, the development agreements and so on,” Elliott-Lopez said.

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“There are two things that change in the process. Within a special planning area, there is flexibility with regard to how public consultation is done. … A key piece is the minister takes the place of council and that is the time that’s shaved off. Within the special planning areas, HRM staff have made those a priority.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill says the Progressive Conservative government's housing plan is missing the mark.- Francis Campbell
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill says the Progressive Conservative government’s housing plan is missing the mark.- Francis Campbell

Churchill asked about affordable housing and if the government and the task force have adopted the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) definition of affordability as a lodging that costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s before-tax income. 

“Affordability means different things to different people,” Elliott-Lopez said. “What I find affordable would be very different from what somebody making minimum wage finds affordable. That’s why our programs offer varying levels of affordability. For example, when we enter into an agreement with developers or community housing agencies under our affordable housing development program, we look for a minimum of 80 per cent of average market rent.”

Supply issue

Rafuse said the line of questioning begs a response about the issue of housing supply.

“We need to be able to increase supply,” he said. “Once we have the ability to increase supply, affordability will be impacted. The housing plan speaks of targets and the interventions the province will be making to achieve those targets. If we do so, affordability will be achieved across the spectrum.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender says the government's trickle-down housing theory does not work to increase affordable housing. - Francis Campbell
NDP Leader Claudia Chender says the government’s trickle-down housing theory does not work to increase affordable housing. – Francis Campbell

Claudia Chender, leader of the New Democratic Party, told Elliott-Lopez and Rafuse that trickle-down housing doesn’t work.

“Yes, we need supply … and we need supply at every level, we need supply that is attainable to people who make $250,000 a year and we need supply that is attainable to people who make $50,000 a year, $30,000 a year or who might be on income assistance.”

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Chender said the question becomes priorities.

“The challenge that we face trying to understand this issue … is we hear a lot about trickle-down housing and how supply will solve our problems and how the answer to the housing crisis is more housing and we don’t hear very much about strengthening the non-market housing sector and making sure that people in the most need get the housing they need.”

Can’t wait five years

Chender said simply increasing the supply of housing will not “in any meaningful timeline drive down the price of housing … not for any of the constituents that I have or any of the people that I talked to in the province who are in core housing need and there are thousands and thousands of them.”

Chender said those people can’t wait five years or 10 years for supply to drive down pricing.

Rafuse said the department’s analysis does show that increasing supply will have an impact on pricing and the department’s intervention across the housing spectrum will address affordable housing and housing for low-income Nova Scotians.

“The statistics that we’ve looked at shows that Nova Scotia housing starts did increase by 1.7 per cent between 2022 and 2023, and completions, which is the critical statistic that we want to look at, increased by 12.9 per cent from 2022 to 2023,” Elliott-Lopez said.

“We do hear from developers that things have slowed with rising interest rates, but with the tax measures the government has taken, we’ve also heard from developers that they are ready to pick up and start going again.”
 

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