Halifax

Halifax Social Housing Tenants Rally to Save Their Homes

12:00pm
- 1:00pm
Tuesday December 1 2015

Faced with the end of subsidies and the proposed sale of non-profit apartment buildings, dozens of social housing units in Halifax’s North End are in danger of becoming unaffordable or disappearing entirely. Housing Nova Scotia, the agency responsible for ensuring affordable housing, has refused to act to stop the loss of affordable housing in the community. The Brunswick Street Tenants Association is organizing a rally with one message to Housing Nova Scotia CEO Dan Troke: do your job or resign.

“Halifax has a housing crisis. Our neighbourhood is already dealing with gentrification, now we’re losing what little affordable housing we had” said Deb Key, Chair of the Brunswick Street Tenants Association. “The tenants in my group have been trying to meet with Housing Nova Scotia since August. We’ve been ignored”.

After hearing of the rally, a Housing Nova Scotia representative reached out to Evan Coole, who has been acting as an advocate for the tenants:

“After ignoring the impending loss of affordable housing for months, a Housing Nova Scotia representative called me to say our concerns are immature. ‘Immature’ is a direct quote.” Said Coole.

“We have called Housing Nova Scotia dozens of times in the last few months to ask that they intervene or at the very least hear our concerns. They’ve chosen to add insult to injury instead of doing their job.”

The rally will take place at 12noon, December 1st outside the Halifax Central Library, where landlord lobby group IPOANS will be presenting to a Housing Nova Scotia conference on social housing. The Brunswick Street Tenants Association invites affected people and their allies to attend.

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