One in four Halifax area homes spend 30% or more on housing: study

A new housing assessment study shows a quarter of households across the Halifax region spends thirty per cent or more of their income on accommodations.

That's higher than the provincial and national averages and it's actually worse for certain groups of people and those who live in the municipality's regional centre.

Some of the groups facing housing affordability problems include youth households, lone parents, and Aboriginal-led households.

The study was done for the Affordable Housing and Homelessness Partnership.

"Nearly 40 per cent tells us about the need in the centre." said Max Chauvin, chairman of the partnership.

"Youth led households facing housing poverty is not really a surprise, but to see that it's more than 50 per cent might be."

The report states that 60 per cent of youth households are using too much of their total income to pay for housing.

Others in Halifax are using more than half of their income on housing — 11.8 per cent of people are in that boat.

Rising costs

All of those problems are compounded by the rising costs to buy a home and increased rent.

Average house prices in Halifax have steadily increased from 2007 to 2014 and this trend is expected to continue.

House prices saw an average year-over-year increase of 3.7 per cent compared to the consumer price index, which shows an average increase of 1.7 per cent in the same time period. The average sale price of existing homes in 2014 was $279,294, while the average price for new homes was $375,847.

The report states that average rent prices have skyrocketed; from 2001 to 2014 rent increased by 48.6 per cent. That would take a person's rent from $630 a month in 2001 to $936 in 2014.

One of the suggestions for tackling the problem is rent subsidies. But some anti-poverty activists question whether subsidies work or just allow rents to remain high. They think more research is needed.  

The head of the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia agreed the information from the study is useful for background but wants to see an action plan.  

"The funding for affordable housing is not there. The funding [from the province] has been $25,000 per unit," said Ross Cantwell, president of the Housing Trust.

"New Brunswick has had programs where it's $40,000[per unit]."

The housing assessment study will be presented to Halifax's Community Planning and Economic Development Committee on Thursday.