Houston’s broken promise on housing leaving Nova Scotians out in the cold

DARTMOUTH– Nova Scotia’s New Democrats are calling out Tim Houston for failing to ensure Nova Scotians have safe, accessible housing they can afford.

With the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment topping $2,000 a month, and rents rising at triple the rate of the current rent cap, many Nova Scotians are worried about their futures and feeling priced out of the province.

“This province has lost hundreds of affordable homes as prices continue to rise, and the Houston Conservatives don’t understand the urgency of this issue,” said NSNDP Leader Claudia Chender. “When he was elected, Tim Houston promised to deal with the housing crisis and ensure Nova Scotians can find a home they can afford. That promise has been broken. Nova Scotians deserve to have a place to call home without worrying that they will be kicked out under a fixed-term lease, or priced out from unsustainable rent increases.”

Ocean Breeze Village in Dartmouth is one of the last places with affordable rent in HRM. The community is being demolished after it was purchased by a group of local real estate investors with the intent of developing the land. There is no guarantee that the new units built at Ocean Breeze will be affordable.

A thousand Ocean Breeze residents will be displaced as a result and thrown into a housing market with unaffordable rent and rock-bottom vacancy rates.

Celine Porcheron has lived at Ocean Breeze since 2017. She’s worried about what will happen when she gets evicted.

“The average rent here is $1,400, but if these families are forced out, they’ll be looking at rents close to $3,000 for a three-bedroom in HRM. That kind of leap is unimaginable for most, and it’s tearing our community apart, literally and figuratively. These kinds of family-oriented communities are disappearing,” said Porcheron. “When we reached out to Mr. Houston, asking him to visit our community, to hear us, to help us navigate this painful process of demovictions – he refused. This government has chosen to put the profits of landlords and corporate interests over the welfare of Nova Scotians.”

Nova Scotia’s New Democrats’ will address the housing crisis from all angles: from supply, to affordability, to opening more paths to homeownership.

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