Since 2021, I have been collecting research data on rent supplements (the Canada Housing Benefit) in Nova Scotia. This includes in-depth interviews with tenants who receive the subsidy, as well as with other community stakeholders. The recent meeting of the Nova Scotia Legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts focused on this program, but overlooked some of its serious problems and limitations. In the context of high rents, meagre income assistance rates and a minimum wage that fails to match a living wage, we all agree that this subsidy provides vital financial support to low-income renters. However, my research findings provide further evidence of the need to ensure the subsidy is more effectively responding to those who are most vulnerable to living in unaffordable, unsafe housing and becoming homeless.  

One point not discussed during this meeting was the condition of the units—the places where rent subsidy recipients live. Some tenants I have interviewed shared that they face chronic rodent infestations, to the extent that they live day in and day out with food and clothing in plastic containers to protect themselves from mice and rats. Other tenants have shared that they are living in rooms with no heat or with extensive mould, have appliances that never get fixed, and windows and doors that might be boarded up, or don’t open or latch properly.

In an earlier version of the rent supplement program in this province, inspections of units were required to ensure they were in acceptable condition. It is unclear to me why this is no longer the case, given that public funds are involved and, based on the Census, Nova Scotia has a higher percentage of housing in need of major repairs compared to the rest of the country. 

Second are utility costs. Although these were briefly discussed at the meeting, the hardship described to me by tenants was not well captured. The rent supplement amount tenants receive in Nova Scotia does not adjust based on whether utilities are included in the rent, even though both rent and utilities are considered by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as part of one’s shelter costs. For tenants who must pay their own water, oil, and/or electricity (and there are many), covering their utility bills is a constant struggle, with some forgoing food or not turning up the heat in cold weather to do so. Many tenants I interviewed are in arrears with Nova Scotia Power or their oil company, and they expressed ongoing worry about having their utilities shut off and about not knowing how they would pay their next bill. Nova Scotia has one of the highest rates of energy poverty in Canada (experienced across the province, but especially in rural areas). Why is it that the cost of utilities was considered in the rental allowance review for our MLAs who live outside Halifax, but is not taken into account for the rent supplement program? The government’s decision to reduce the heating assistance rebate amount this year will only worsen the economic hardship experienced by tenants receiving the rent subsidy and the chronic stress they experience.

Thirdly, the lauded portability of this rent supplement program – part of its design, as stated in the province’s latest National Housing Strategy Action Plan, stands out. The subsidy is said to be designed to move with the recipient, which the province claims provides “decision-making power, autonomy, and flexibility to relocate to housing that meets tenants’ needs.”  In my interview, I found that while some recipients do indeed move from one unit to another (albeit usually in the context of living in housing in poor condition), it’s generally not a sense of autonomy that tenants experience. Rather, it’s a sense of fear that their landlord will sell the property they are living in and that they will suddenly lose their home. Other tenants I have interviewed express this same uncertainty and fear because they have signed a fixed-term lease (echoing findings recently reported by Dalhousie Legal Aid based on province-wide survey research), or because they have made a request for a repair and wonder if they will be evicted for doing so. So instead of autonomy, tenants face uncertainty because ‘choice’ (and power) really belongs to their landlords, not to them.

The high utility costs and other limitations in the design of the rent supplement program in the province mean that many tenants I have interviewed who receive the rent subsidy are still paying at least 50 per cent of their income on shelter costs. Even with the rent subsidy, many tenants continue to face severe housing needs. Importantly, in the bilateral agreement signed in 2020 between the province and the federal government regarding the Canada Housing Benefit (CHB), the program’s objective was “to eliminate or significantly reduce Housing Need.” However, in the province’s five-year housing plan, the CHB is described differently, as a program where households “receive support with monthly rent.”

As committee witnesses from Adsum for Women and Children pointed out, it is crucial for governments to invest in deeply affordable, permanent, non-market housing as the ultimate solution to the housing crisis. It is also urgent that the government make changes to the rent supplement program to ensure that renters in Nova Scotia who receive the subsidy live in secure, stable, safe, and affordable housing. These changes include considering utility costs in the subsidy calculation when they are not already factored into the rent and addressing the use of fixed-term leases. It also involves improving unit quality through inspections or a broader landlord licensing program, as well as establishing a Compliance and Enforcement Unit for the Residential Tenancies Program. Only by recognizing safe, affordable housing as a human right will we meet the needs of renters across the province. While we work toward fully realising that right, along with a rental increase cap tied to units, the rental supplement program can be strengthened to help prevent further housing insecurity and homelessness.