Housing: See the Facts, Read Our Letters, Write Yours

The Housing situation in HRM is worsening. The Affordable Housing Associations statistics show that there are 1,035 people actively homeless on Halifax Regional Municipality (link to stats here). This has increased from previous statistics . The July 2023 Sleeping Rough Survey which was conducted with the support of HRM and service providers on July 11, 2023, found 178 individuals sleeping in the rough and they acknowledged that this would not include all individuals in HRM. Their preliminary observations are below.

As a downtown Dartmouth Church, Grace United Church has become increasing concerned about the situation of people who are unhoused or who are precariously housed. People come to our door for help and we also meet them in programming we offer with our partners. With expiry of fixed terms leases and the next scheduled rent increase, we are expecting that more people will no longer be able to afford housing, let alone suitable housing.

The provincial government has responsibility for housing and in Nova Scotia, aspects of it are divided between the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Community Services. At the end of September 2023, we sent letters of the Premier, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Community Service urging the creation of emergency housing in Dartmouth that was more than a shelter that only operates on a nightly basis as well as the creation of deeply affordable housing. These letters were sent after the recent announcement of the creation of 222 public housing unit province-wide.

To see the Letter to the Premier - click here

To see letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing - click here

To see letter to the Minister of Community Services - click here

We also sent letters to Dartmouth MLAs to encourage them to urge the government to undertake these actions as well as to work with other partners to resolve the housing crisis.

To see a letter sent to a Dartmouth MLA - click here

Dartmouth HRM Councillors also received letters to express our appreciation for what they have done and to urge them to continue to work with partners to help resolve the housing crisis.

To see a letter to a Dartmouth Councillor - click here

We invite other people to join us in expressing concern.

We would urge you to send a letter/e-mail to the Premier, Ministers and your MLA and Councillor to express your concern about the issue and to urge action. If you are unsure what to write we have created a generic minister letter in Word that you can download and personalize. Click here to see it and then use your computer to download

To find e-mail links to Premier/Ministers/MLA - click here

To find e-mail links to HRM Mayor and Councillors - click here

Replies from the Government

We received a response from the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing. To see the response - click here