The recently released provincial housing strategy describes how supporting home ownership and creating mixed communities through alliances with private developers and non-profit organizations will address this shortage of affordable housing.

Pamela Harrison, although supportive of the strategy in general, fears that the document does not sufficiently address the needs of people who receive social assistance or struggle to make ends meet on very low incomes.

Harrison is the provincial coordinator for the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia. She is also one of the main authors of those sections in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Alternative Budget that deal with housing issues.

"All of us have different capabilities, different ways that we contribute to communities, but all of us have the right to be respected. If people have limited ability to contribute that doesn't mean that they should be sacrificed in terms of housing and safety," says Harrison.

There is a general consensus that anybody who spends more than 30 percent of their income on housing is spending more than they can afford. Yet, Harrison argues, for people on social assistance, average market rents can easily consume as much as 80 percent of their income. Even subsidized “affordable” apartments often remain out of reach for them.

What this shows, Harrison argues, is that there are limits to what we can expect private developers to accomplish. We need to recognize that government should not just engage with the private sector, but also with the non-profits, Harrison suggests. After all, the non-profit sector is best suited to address obstacles faced by people living on social assistance or low incomes.

Harrison also believes that the lack of affordable housing is an urgent issue. "The sooner you get people with barriers, financial, mental health, disabilities, it could be anything, the sooner you get folks in these units the better outcomes you have for their children. So this is preventative," says Harrison.

And this will take money. The Alternative Budget set aside $200 million over the next three years. The provincial housing strategy allocates $500 million over the next 10 years, but only $3 million in the current fiscal year.

"I am really disappointed by the small amount set aside for this year. I don't know why the delay," says Harrison. "I think the consultation was well done. But I really don't think the consultation told them anything they didn't already know. For me it is, 'What's the holdup? Let's get going.'"

Mixed housing - the idea that homeowners and tenants, rich and poor, abled and disabled, all share a neighbourhood made up of commercial, subsidized and social housing - is a principle that Harrison endorses.

But Harrison doesn't believe that mixed housing will spontaneously result in vibrant and diverse neighbourhoods that the housing strategy promises. neighbourhoods may be mixed, but this brings with it certain risks.

People who are well off tend to get their way more often than their less wealthy neighbours. As well, rents go up in an entire neighbourhood when condominiums and townhouses appear, no matter that some of the units are subsidized and more affordable. In other words, gentrification looms.

This is why Harrison and the Alternative Budget come out strongly in favour of rent control. Rent control was frequently recommended during the province-wide housing strategy consultation, but it didn't make it into the final strategy document.

"I think rent controls are extraordinarily important," says Harrison. "How else are we going to ensure that there will in fact be a continuum of different types of housing and different groups of people in these communities?"

Harrison, who points to successful implementations of rent control in other provinces, also strongly argues for rent control legislation with teeth. Harrison favours the hiring of enforcement officers to ensure that apartments are up to code and in Harrison's words "clean, safe and warm."

But Harrison believes something else is necessary to make mixed housing successful. Community Services needs to address the huge gap between social assistance and what is considered a livable income. That issue that is not addressed in the Housing Strategy at all.

Harrison is convinced that in Nova Scotia, no parent on income assistance can afford to feed their children well. "This fact is absolutely relevant to the housing strategy," says Harrison. "You cannot have a mixed housing environment when you have people who are disadvantaged before they even walk through the door."

"If you want children and their families to be able to interact in a healthy environment, we have to ensure that they eat well, we have to ensure that we have their needs met," says Harrison.

The Alternative Budget recommends the creation of a new department fully dedicated to affordable housing.

The provincial Housing Strategy announces a name change for the Nova Scotia Housing Development Corporation to Housing Nova Scotia, but the new entity will remain within the Community Services organizational structure. What is new is that there will be an advisory board made up of stakeholders.

Harrison believes that the advisory board it is a first step in the right direction. But she does have questions. "How will decisions be made? Will it be by majority? Will it be by consensus?" asks Harrison. "And who will choose the community representatives on that committee? That is of great concern to me, that it has at the very least a democratic selection process."

"I just want to say that I am fairly hopeful about the strategy," says Harrison. "But I think that the Transition House Association, like other non profit organizations who work with people who face barriers, will continue to watch this housing strategy as long as it is in place, and will make sure that it really makes a significant difference for the people we serve."