Media release: ACORN rallying to keep the rent cap
News release: Tenants and allied community members are gathering in front of the NS Legislature in an all-day occupation to demand permanent rent control and immediate action on the housing crisis.
Rent control
Hailie Tattrie: We’re closer to houselessness than we think
Hailie Tattrie: “However, I am here to remind all you that we are each closer to houselessness than we may think. One accident, one health issue, one missed paycheque, could land many of us out on the streets.”
Kendall Worth: My take on yesterday’s evictions by the police
Kendall Worth on yesterday’s police evictions: Many of the people who got evicted have nowhere to go. Here in Halifax and in other parts of Nova Scotia housing is not affordable. Sources tell me that even the prices of rooms in rooming houses are going up.
Danny Cavanagh: Housing reality, the market and homelessness
Danny Cavanagh: Imagine that you’re paying rent and you have been told you need to move out because the place will be renovated. You go to the bank to see about buying a home. The bank says no to a mortgage even though the rent payment is higher than a mortgage payment. This is happening far too often.
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.”
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.
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.
Media release: Affordable Housing Commission recommends eliminating rent control
Media release: This report shows a complete disconnect from the reality that tenants in this province are facing. Rather than provide material protections for tenants or invest in building public housing, the commission has chosen to recommend cutting red tape and giving tax breaks to developers, vague promises to improve public housing, and discontinuing rent control past the state of emergency.
ACORN Nova Scotia launches broad anti-austerity platform, calls on others to join coalition
Last Saturday the hardworking people at ACORN Nova Scotia launched a list of demands that they hope anti-austerity activists and organizations in the province can sign off on.
News brief: ACORN Nova Scotia rallies ahead of next week’s Liberal leadership convention
A small ACORN Nova Scotia rally and press conference in downtown Halifax served to remind the three Liberal MLAs running to become the new premier of Nova Scotia that as far as low income Nova Scotians are concerned the current premier left the province in a terrible mess.