A new survey among people sleeping rough in the Halifax area suggests the practices of renovictions and fixed-term leases are contributing to the rising number of unhoused people.
The survey was conducted on July 11, among 178 people in HRM who are sleeping rough — on benches, in tents, in cars, in Tyvek shelters, in abandoned buildings, on stairs and in bank lobbies. That number is more than double the number of people included in last year’s sleeping rough survey.
While the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia estimates there are around 977 homeless people in the Halifax area, those numbers include those who are couch-surfing or staying in hotels or shelters, while this survey focuses on those who are sleeping outside.
More than one out of five of the survey’s respondents — 22.5 per cent — said they had lost their home due to a renoviction or fixed-term lease.
“With inflation, landlords using fixed-term leases to bypass the rent cap, and 178 individuals sleeping rough is not shocking,” said the survey, released this week by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia.
“This proves we need stronger legislation to protect low-income tenants and to abolish the practice of fixed-term leases.”
Unlike periodic leases, such as month-to-month or year-to-year, fixed-term leases have fixed start and end dates, meaning they are not automatically renewed.
While there is a rent cap in place until the end of 2025 — with the current two per cent cap rising to five per cent in January 2024 — it does not apply to new leases, so landlords who wish to skirt the rent cap can elect to not renew a person’s lease, and raise the rent above the cap for the next tenant.
As well, while there used to be a ban on “renovictions” — where a landlord removes a tenant, makes upgrades and then lists the unit at a higher price — that was lifted in March 2022 after the pandemic-era state of emergency ended.
Gayle Collicutt, housing support co-ordinator with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, said renovictions and fixed-term leases have largely affected those who have become homeless in the last year.
The fact that one-fifth of the survey’s respondents attribute their loss of housing to renovictions and fixed-term leases “proves that the residential tenancies board, even though it’s presented as for the tenant, it’s always been skewed for the landlord,” she said.
“The fixed-term lease practice needs to be abolished, especially when it comes to private market rentals because it’s just a tool now for landlords to bypass the rent cap.”
She said the province needs stronger legislation to protect renters.
In a statement, a spokesperson with Service Nova Scotia said the province is “always looking at ways to strengthen the Residential Tenancies Program while balancing the needs and interests of both tenants and landlords.”
“This includes the possibility of a compliance and enforcement unit for the Residential Tenancies Act,” spokesperson Rachel Boomer said.
It noted that when the ban on renovictions was lifted in March 2022, the province put new rules in place to “help protect tenants against evictions due to renovations.”
Landlords who want to end a lease to renovate their property must first try to reach a mutual agreement with their tenant. If the tenant does not agree, they must then apply for an eviction order and prove that the repairs are so extensive they require a building permit, and that the rental unit must be vacant for the renovations to occur.
Tenants are also entitled to at least three months’ notice before they have to move out, as well as between one and three months’ rent as compensation.
“We would encourage anyone facing an eviction due to renovations to file an application with the Residential Tenancies program, if their landlord has not followed these rules,” it said. “Violating these requirements can lead to additional compensation for tenants, such as covering moving expenses or paying the difference between the tenant’s new unit and the rent paid for their former unit, for up to one year.”
Boomer said the province has also been “looking at fixed-term leases and whether they are being used as intended.”
“It is very important that tenants understand what they are signing when they enter into any type of lease, so they are aware of and prepared for when their lease ends,” Boomer said. “Any changes to fixed-term lease rules would require legislation.”
But Collicutt said it’s already clear that fixed-term leases are not being used as intended — that they are being more frequently seen as a way to bypass the rental cap.
“The fixed-term lease has become a more and more used tool … that’s why it’s more recurring amongst the people that are newer to being homeless,” she said.
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Former youth in care
The sleeping rough survey also found that nearly a third of respondents had been involved with child protective services as a child or youth.
Collicutt said when youth age out of care, there is little to no safety net, which is “setting them up for failure” as an adult.
“I think we need the government, especially provincially, to look at better ways to support youth when they’re transitioning out of the foster care system, because this is a very alarming but not shocking number,” she said.
“Really, anyone that’s been brought into care should be viewed as someone that will always need help from child protective services system, because the government took the responsibility of that individual and should be making sure they are OK even into adulthood.”
In a statement, Community Services spokesperson Leanne Strathdee-Dowling noted that “many children and youth who enter the care system have complex trauma,” which can “significantly impact their well-being affecting relationships, education, employment, and housing.”
She said the province made a $3.9-million investment in the most recent budget to develop a program to provide financial supports for youth leaving care, create 15 new youth outreach worker positions, and establish a new outreach program to offer clinical supports for youth with complex needs.
The province is also investing $6.2 million to expand skill-upgrading, training and education programs, she said, in addition to existing programs for those experiencing homelessness.
“We know there is more to do, and we’ll continue to work hard to help Nova Scotians find safe, secure housing,” said Strathdee-Dowling.
Other findings from the sleeping rough survey include:
- There were 178 people surveyed, compared with 85 last year.
- 71.9 per cent identified as male, 24.7 per cent as female, and 1.7 per cent as non-binary.
- Roughly 50 per cent of those surveyed shelter in Halifax, 22 per cent in Dartmouth, 19 per cent in Sackville and three per cent in Spryfield.
- The average age of those surveyed is 40, 13.5 per cent of those surveyed are seniors (aged 58-plus) and 10.2 per cent are aged 16 to 24.
- The average length of homelessness was about 30 months.
- Indigenous people continue to be overrepresented in the homeless population, with 32 per cent of the survey’s respondents identifying as Indigenous, while Indigenous people make up 3.8 per cent of Halifax’s total population.
- 10.1 per cent identified as Black and/or person of African descent and 2.2 per cent identified as a person of colour.
- 15.2 per cent identified as LGBTQ2S+.
- 24 per cent are on housing waiting lists.
- 61 per cent sleep in tents, 6.2 per cent sleep on benches, 4.5 per cent sleep in vehicles, 1.7 per cent sleep in abandoned buildings, 1.7 per cent sleep in Tyvek shelters and one per cent each sleep in stairwells or ATM lobbies.
- For their primary source of income, 36 per cent said income assistance, 6.8 per cent said CPP, seven per cent are employed, 1.7 per cent said worker’s compensation, one per cent said employment insurance, and 26 per cent reported no source of income.
Collicutt said the province needs to legislate higher wages, an improved rent control system, better income assistance rates, and more social and public housing.
“The working class is really, really getting drawn into this because of low wages,” she said.
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