More than 65% of Nova Scotians experienced a housing challenge in the past year: StatsCan

For almost a year, Terri Singer and her husband and three kids have been living in one room, sharing a bed and a pull-out couch — trying to frame their desperate situation as an adventure.

Hotels and a family member's living room have been their home since everything fell apart. 

In October 2023, Singer's family was evicted from the house they had been renting for four years in Truro, N.S. The home had been sold and the new owners were moving in. 

Her husband had just lost his job, and the family's sole income was Singer's salary working at a local hotel. She couldn't find a new rental in their price range. 

That's when their months-long battle with homelessness began. 

"My five-year-old … looks at me and he says, 'I just want a regular home again.' And he was bawling his eyes out," Singer said in an interview from the family's hotel room in Halifax. "And it just hurts my heart to know that we're here as a province and so many people are dealing with this right now."

Singer believes her family's experience is a grave illustration of the housing challenges faced by many Nova Scotians. Data from Statistics Canada backs this up, showing housing concerns are all too common. 

The most recent Canadian Social Survey gathered data in August and September, and found 66 per cent of Nova Scotians experienced a housing challenge related to affordability, suitability, condition or discrimination in the past year.

The survey also found 41 per cent of people in the province were "very concerned" about their ability to afford housing because of rising housing costs or rising rent.

These numbers are similar for the entire country, with 68 per cent of Canadians experiencing one or more housing challenges and 45 per cent very concerned about their housing affordability. 

Housing support worker 'unsurprised' by number

Staff at Adsum for Women and Children, a Halifax non-profit that operates shelters and affordable housing units, are on the front lines of the housing crisis and hear stories like this every day. 

Nora Richter, a housing support worker with Adsum, said she receives calls each day from 12 to 15 families looking for a place to stay. She said the past year has seen a "substantial increase" in demand, with many becoming homeless for the first time, often due to legal evictions.

"So they have no grounds to combat them," Richter said. "But when they need to find somewhere else to go, they just absolutely cannot find somewhere else that is affordable. And so they end up with no other option but to look at emergency shelter."

Adsum supports more than 60 homeless families in hotel rooms, including Singer's, with funding from the provincial government. 

Richter said she's "unsurprised" by the Statistics Canada figures.

"I would say that most folks who work in this type of environment, where they're supporting people with housing, would be unsurprised," she said. "I think that people are walking on eggshells."

She said she also sees many people staying in abusive relationships, or unhealthy and unsafe living conditions, just to keep a roof over their head. 

Middle class also impacted

Keely Corrigan's whole building was emptied out last year when the new owners didn't renew the tenants' fixed-term leases. She went from paying $754 monthly on rent to now paying close to $1,600.

She said her new Dartmouth apartment was the cheapest she could find. It's nicer than her old place, but working full time as a call centre agent isn't cutting it with her new bills. 

"I'm obliterating my savings," Corrigan said. "I have not been able to save anything for emergencies or retirement … I can't even put away 20 bucks because I got all my pennies accounted for."

Corrigan, 35, said she feels like she has a "good, stable job." But her rent is more than 50 per cent of her income, she doesn't own a car and she sometimes struggles to pay for groceries. 

She said her dreams of buying a house in the future have faded away.

"How can you plan for any sort of future when you can't even guarantee that you're going to have a home tomorrow, right?"

Some hope on the horizon

Singer and her family recently received word that they'd gotten a spot in The Rose, Adsum's new affordable housing building in Halifax. They're hoping this will be their last month living in a hotel and they can get back on their feet. 

And the rental market has seen some relief — the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation recently reported Halifax's average vacancy rate is rising, the spike in rental costs is becoming less steep, and rental construction starts hit a record high in 2024.

But the report also found salaries aren't keeping up with housing costs, and rent increases on turnover are close to 30 per cent.

Richter said all levels of government need to work toward "more sustainable solutions" to create affordable housing.

"I think some of the solutions that we have in place right now are temporary," she said. "They don't give people the security or stability that they need to be able to just take a breath and be the family that they want to be."