PSA: Statement from Halifax Mutual Aid
PSA: Halifax Mutual Aid response to the city’s July 13 ultimatum. “We can not in good conscience put people in a worse situation than they are currently in.”
Housing
Halifax sets deadline to destroy mutual aid crisis shelters as councillors dodge accountability
The city of Halifax is telling people living in crisis shelters to leave their temporary homes by June 13, or they will call the cops and make it so. Councillors should stop hiding behind an amorphous city and become accountable for the city’s actions.
James Sawler: Affordable housing is crucial infrastructure and should be financed publicly
Economist James Sawler on the report by the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission. “Affordable housing is crucial infrastructure, and since its benefits accrue not just to individual households but across our entire society (bestowing what economists call positive externalities), like most infrastructure, it should be financed publicly.”
“If you can’t lend a hand, stay out of the way” – Haligonians rally in support of the crisis shelters
On Sunday about 150 people weathered the afternoon heat to participate in the Rally to Save the Shelters at the vacant old library on Spring Garden Road. Stephen Wentzell was there to tell you all about it.
Inclusionary zoning a powerful tool to help solve Nova Scotia’s affordable housing crisis
Inclusionary zoning allows a municipality to mandate a certain percentage of affordable housing in new developments. With an affordable housing crisis growing more urgent by the day, why don’t we use this tool in Nova Scotia? Stephen Wentzell investigates.
Hands off the Halifax crisis shelters
Persistent rumors that the city is about to expel unhoused people from the 13 shelters provided by Halifax Mutual Aid have now been confirmed by city staff. Councillors seem to think that’s not a problem.
Media release: Campaign launch – Housing is health – Nova Scotians are calling on their government to build or acquire 33,000 units over the next 10 years
MEdia release: Today the Nova Scotia Action Coalition for Community Wellbeing (NSACCW) is launching a new campaign calling on Nova Scotians to sign an open letter to the Premier and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing.
News brief: Rent control and paid sick leave about to end, NDP suggests
Rent control and the provincial paid sick leave program both have built-in end dates and are likely to end fairly soon., says Gary Burrill, the leader of the provincial NDP. The Liberals never wanted these programs in the first place, says Burrill.
Media Release: Migrant farm workers release report of abuse and neglect in housing across Canada
Migrant Rights Network is releasing a report comprising testimonies, surveys, photographs and demands for change in housing from 453 migrant farmworkers across Canada. The report also puts forward migrant worker demands for basic human rights that must be at the core of any national housing standards, and yet are shockingly absent from the government’s proposals: privacy, space, quality of life, family unity and worker control.
Loophole: Housing advocate calls for elimination of fixed-term leases in Nova Scotia
Landlords like fixed term leases because they offer a way to get around the 2% rent cap currently in place. Stephen Wentzell talks to a tenant who was forced out of his home, and tries to get a response from the province.