Nova Scotia·NewNew figures show a total of 8,267 people across the province waiting for a public housing unit as of June 27, an increase of more than 1,200 since last October.NDP Leader Claudia Chender calls on PC government to do more to protect rentersMichael Gorman · CBC News · Posted: Sep 04, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 30 minutes agoThe waitlist for public housing in Nova Scotia has grown to 8,267 people. The metro district, which includes Halifax Regional Municpality, has the largest demand with 3,545 people waiting for a unit. (Jonathan Villeneuve/Radio Canada)The waitlist for a spot in Nova Scotia’s public housing system has topped 8,200 people, an increase of more than 1,200 since last October.The updated numbers are contained in a recent access to information package released to the Opposition NDP. In July, the party requested updated waitlist figures from the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency, which oversees the province’s approximately 11,000 public housing units.”This is evidence of what we’ve been saying for the better part of a few years now, which is that housing has become completely unaffordable,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in an interview.”And so that means that people are desperate to find housing, and some of those folks are going to apply for public housing as a last resort.”The new figures show a total of 8,267 people across the province waiting for a public housing unit as of June 27.A breakdown of the waitlist for public housing units in Nova Scotia from the province’s housing agency. (Nova Scotia NDP caucus)The largest demand is in the metro district, with 3,545 people on the waitlist. The western district had 1,780 people in line for a unit, while there were 1,677 and 1,265 people on the waitlists for the northern and Cape Breton districts, respectively.The majority of people in each of the four districts were waiting for a one-bedroom unit.Information in the disclosure package to the NDP also showed that 47 per cent of people on the waitlist were seniors. The Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency considers anyone 58 or older as a senior.The new numbers represent a U-turn for the waitlist after a glimmer of progress.In August of 2023, the figure stood at 7,709 people, before falling to 7,020 last October.CBC News previously reported that people can wait on average two years before getting a public housing unit.Government-announced programsThe Progressive Conservative government has made changes to the system in recent years in an attempt to turn around units faster when they become available and to ensure people are living in units that are the right size for their needs.Still, progress has been stubbornly slow.Last February, Growth and Development Minister Colton LeBlanc, the province’s minister responsible for housing, said his government would double the number of new public housing units it planned to construct in the coming years, for a total of 464 new units and 51 modular homes.The government has yet to provide a complete breakdown of where and when all of the units will be constructed.In July, an 18-unit building with affordable units opened in Cole Harbour as the first example of an effort the Progressive Conservatives announced four years ago to make surplus provincial land available for the creation of housing.Claudia Chender is the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP. (Michael Gorman/CBC)Chender said those programs and announcements are good steps, but the thousands of people on the public housing waitlist and others need more immediate action.At the top of Chender’s list of things the government could do to help now is closing the fixed-term lease loophole, which allows landlords to avoid the province’s five per cent cap on rent increases if a unit is being rented to a new tenant.”That leads to a situation where it’s as expensive to live and commute in HRM right now as it is to live and commute in Toronto,” said Chender, referring to recent Statistics Canada data.”That is just not acceptable.”Neither LeBlanc nor a representative for the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency were made available for an interview.ABOUT THE AUTHORMichael Gorman covers the Nova Scotia legislature for CBC, with additional focuses on health care and rural communities. Contact him with story ideas at michael.gorman@cbc.ca
Nova Scotia public housing waitlist hits 8,200 people
