1,200 households will get off waiting list under new housing strategy, minister says

New Brunswick's social development minister is confident a new action plan for housing will help address homelessness and the shortage of affordable housing across the province.

An agreement between the provincial and the federal governments under the national housing strategy will commit nearly $300 million to efforts in New Brunswick over the next 10 years. 

Dorothy Shephard said 151 new subsidized housing units will be created in the first three years of the plan.

"That's going to give us some new housing stock," Dorothy Shephard said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.

There are now about 5,400 people on the waiting list for NB Housing.

The new units, which are a mixture of NB Housing and private units with housing agreements, will be spread out across the province and eliminate about 1,200 households from the provincial waiting list over the term of the agreement, Shephard said. 

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The two governments signed the agreement last July under the national housing strategy, but the province only recently revealed how the money will be used.

While the plan recognizes home ownership is more affordable in New Brunswick than in much of the rest of Canada, it also many low-income households are in need of major repairs, particularly in rural areas, Shephard said. 

About 12,000 low-income households were in need of major repairs as of 2016.

The plan will set aside $20 million for homeowners to repair and renovate 5,100 units by 2022, which will bring low-income homes in mostly rural areas "up to a better standard," Shephard said.

"It gives us lots of flexibility with how we help people stay housed."

Plan offers rent supplement subsidies 

The plan also includes 150 portable rent subsidies that will be made available to people living with disabilities. Portable subsidies go to individual tenants rather than landlords.

More than 4,300 rent supplement subsidies are now provided to private-sector and non-profit landlords throughout New Brunswick.

"Portable rent subsidies, affordable homes, the renovation plan, all of it together gives us the strategy to help us keep as many people housed as possible," Shephard said.

The strategy sets aside $3 million to help Indigenous communities in need of better housing.

Homelessness still a problem

The province also plans to develop "extensive wrap-around services" to help people make the transition out of homelessness. These would include mental health and addiction services, as well as community support.  

The province announced earlier that it would also provide 35 rent subsidies for individuals ready to transition into more permanent homes and $140,000 for the wrap-around services. 

The province has also earmarked $53,000 for a new 20-bed emergency shelter in Fredericton "if it's needed."

Meanwhile, the department will spend another $66,500 to help cover some of the operating costs of a new 120-bed homeless shelter in Moncton. That money will also be used for addictions and mental health support services on site, and rent supplements.