Post-secondary students feeling sting of N.S. housing crisis, committee told
Nova Scotia’s post-secondary students continue to struggle to find accommodations they can afford.
“All discussions I have had with post-secondary education leaders involve student housing,” Ryan Grant, the deputy minister of the Advanced Education Department, told a legislative committee meeting on student housing needs Wednesday.
The Provincial Housing Needs Assessment Report compiled for the provincial government and released in October included a 2022 survey conducted from October to December that showed almost half of student respondents had gone without groceries to pay for their housing costs.
‘This is clearly the use of fixed-term leases to get around the rent caps and we’ve asked for government to act and make sure that this can’t happen, this wholesale dismissing of dozens of residents.’
Lisa Lachance, New Democratic MLA
Nine per cent identified as “unhoused,” 85 per cent were staying with a friend or family member, and still others were staying in a short-term rental, a vehicle or a tent.
Lisa Lachance, the NDP member for Halifax Citadel-Sable Island, shared a specific tale of student housing troubles.
“I received a really important, poignant email this week from a (Halifax) student explaining that she was in her third year and renting with roommates from a rental agency that had seven or eight properties,” Lachance said.
“They all received an email within the past week saying that due to market conditions and the rental cap, we will not be renewing any leases this year.”
Fixed-term leases
The landlord said a reference would be provided and offered the student tenants the opportunity to look at other accommodations that were available. The alternative lodging was close by — across the street — but the rent would be $1,000 more than they were paying on the current lease.
“This is clearly the use of fixed-term leases to get around the rent caps and we’ve asked for government to act and make sure that this can’t happen, this wholesale dismissing of dozens of residents,” Lachance said.
“It’s a clear abuse of the fixed-term lease. Obviously, they want to raise the rent more than five per cent.”
Lachance said this situation makes it difficult to see the balance in the landlord-tenant equation that government often references.
“The control is with the landlord, not with the renter,” in this situation, Lachance said.
The Ontario students mentioned are considering leaving Nova Scotia because they compare the rent they are paying in Halifax with friends going to school in Toronto who rent for considerably less, said Lachance.
‘Other choices’
Lachance said students will look at their options.
“It’s the highest tuition in the country, added to that, there isn’t housing available and what is available is unaffordable,” Lachance said of the post-secondary experience in Nova Scotia.
“People will make other choices. They won’t want to go into more debt for the privilege of being in Nova Scotia and not being able to make ends meet.”
Byron Rafuse, deputy minister of the Municipal Affairs and Housing Department, said whether it is to pursue a career in health care or the skilled trades, “we are seeing students and young people coming here to study and build a life in Nova Scotia.”
They need safe and affordable housing to thrive here, he said.
“Housing is a key factor in that success story,” Rafuse said.
“We know that in order to truly overcome this housing crisis we need more supply, and we need it at every level. We need to continue to think outside the box to come up with creative solutions.
“Whether a student is occupying a secondary suite in Kentville or a Happipad room in Sydney, students benefit from the unique programs we’ve developed. We also know that students benefit when we do things like build more long-term care beds for our aging seniors, freeing up housing in communities.”
Announcements
The deputy minister was referencing government announcements earlier this week of an additional 2,200 new and replacement long-term care rooms by 2032 and the province building new student housing at four Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) campuses.
About 270 more student spaces in total will be built at the Cumberland campus in Springhill, Kingstec in Kentville, the Lunenburg campus in Bridgewater and the Institute of Technology in Halifax.
This week’s student housing announcement, combined with three other projects under construction at NSCC’s Akerley and Ivany campuses in Dartmouth and the Pictou campus in Stellarton, will result in 620 new student spaces.
The majority Progressive Conservative government and its representatives on the public accounts committee are quick to contrast the government’s announced student housing initiatives with what happened in the previous dozen years under successive New Democrat and Liberal governments.
The PC successes, however, are offset by several failures.
Grant said a marked population growth in the province over the last three to five years has coincided with an increase in students from across Canada and beyond choosing Nova Scotia institutions and communities to study, stay and learn.
“That creates a need, of course, for looking at housing supply,” Grant said.
Expanding housing
Aside from the new NSCC housing, Grant said his department is renovating and expanding student housing at the Atlantic School of Theology, investing $5 million for affordable housing at the Tartan Downs site near Cape Breton University, and launching an online home-sharing tool to help match students with housing near their campuses.
He said the department has also offered new internship and work-integrated learning opportunities to help students improve their earning potential and updated income thresholds for repayment of student assistance programs.
However, students can only earn as much as $100 during a scheduled week of post-secondary learning without their earnings affecting the amount of Nova Scotia student loan they qualify for. The $100 weekly earnings exemption for students has been in place since 2011-12, the year it increased from $50 per week.
“The construct doesn’t work as a cap in terms of how much someone can work,” Grant said.
“There is a limit at which it then affects the student assistance program. I think as we continue to reflect on the experience of students, the affordability options and look at our programs as a whole, we also should be reflecting back and having a view of how can programming evolve and meet the modern needs of students today.”
Grant said the the department will revisit the $100 exemption amount along with other programming.
Vicki Elliott Lopez, the senior executive director with the Municipal Affairs and Housing Department, said the new provincial secondary and backyard suite incentive program introduced last month has already resulted in more than 50 inquiries but despite opening the program for applications on Nov. 14, there have been none thus far.
The government also invested $1.3 million over two years to expand the province’s partnership with the online home-sharing platform Happipad. The program was launched in the spring to help people displaced by wildfires but the government has since made it available to people across the province, signing a two-year agreement with Happipad for a pilot program to run from May 2023 to May 2025.
Happipad typically charges a service fee of five per cent of monthly rent for hosts, and a one-time fee of $20 for background screening for renters. These fees are waived for Nova Scotians who use the service during the pilot period. Provincial funding will be used for marketing costs, user support and waiving fees for Nova Scotians who match through the service. Two Nova Scotia staff members have been hired by Happipad to offer local user support.
The province has set a target of 500 units and thus far there are 200 registered hosts, 558 potential renters and 20 listings.
