Experts, stakeholders give N.S. mixed grades for handling of housing crisis in 2023
“You can go through the whole process of nine months, come out on the other end with a decision in your favour, with no way to collect any restitution — and that’s simply unfair.” -Kevin Russell
The signs are impossible to ignore: online pleas for rentals, sparse shelves at food banks, tents crammed on public squares.
In 2023, rents in Nova Scotia rose faster than anywhere in Canada, vacancy rates remained low and homelessness ballooned. Housing was the biggest story of the year.
“We’re all one paycheque or one crisis away from being homeless ourselves,” said Allison Rouillard in November, discussing her eviction and subsequent decision to move into an RV even as winter approached.
While the housing crisis is a national problem decades in the making, it is particularly acute in Nova Scotia, which is now short tens of thousands of homes.
To help make sense of this massive issue, we asked experts and stakeholders to reflect on the past year and share their thoughts on how we got here — and how we can fix it. …[Continue Reading]