Short answer: it won’t. 

Then whom does it help? Well, it’s going be a boon for the developers in town. Just great. For example, they can apply for funds to build more, taller, massive, glass towers where — by time they are finished —  rents will be upwards of $3,000 a month.  And condo units will be sky high.  “We’re in a housing crisis,” the city fathers and mothers (mayor and councillors) cry.  As if we all don’t know.

It takes an income of $100,000 a year to be able to comfortably afford to pay rent of $3,000 a month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC).  The guideline is that  a renter should spend up to 30% of gross income on rent.  Two years ago, 39% of the people in the province earned between minimum wage and $20 an hour.  Today, minimum wage is a lowly $15.20 per hour.  Even at  $20 an hour, a person would have to work at least 90 hours a week to afford to live in a spanking new apartment in a tower, or in a  townhouse.  Better still let’s look at the Living Wage in Halifax, which rivals the highest in Canada. In Halifax the Living Wage is pegged at $26.50 an hour – higher than Toronto’s ($25.05) and eight cents below Vancouver’s ($25.68).  Even if someone earned the living wage of $26.50 an hour, they would have to work 65 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to afford $3,000 plus a month to pay for rent.  

“We’re in a housing crisis,” say Halifax mayor and councillors; How will $3,000 rents for apartments in new towers help?

But hey– people are moving to Halifax in droves.  No they are not. Yes, seniors from the countryside and around the Maritimes still are.  Many have limited incomes and need to be near hospitals and services.  But statistics reveal that people from other Canadian provinces have largely stopped moving here because of low paying jobs, excessive rents, and the high cost of living.  

Of course we can always rely on students – or can we? The feds have cut the number of international student visas issued by more than one-third, so fewer will be able to come here to study.  Of course tuition fees are more than twice what Canadian students pay.  And – given the low pay for part-time and casual jobs — few of the international students can afford the $3,000 rents – even when they share their apartments or flats.  

What about immigrants?  That’s a possibility, but jobs as nursing assistants or personal care workers pay about $22 an hour, childcare workers earn around $21 an hour, most jobs in cleaning or hospitality pay under $20 per hour.   As a society, we’ve refused to recognize immigrants’ qualifications and experience at par.  Very few immigrants settle here as already-licensed doctors or dentists, or as university professors or executives. 

Renovictions & Short-term leases

So let’s not pretend that the Accelerator funds are going to help the broader population.  What we have are more than 6,500 people on the waiting list for public housing.  Hundreds face renoviction each year; recently met a King’s University student told me he’d been renovicted twice in the last year.  

And there is the serious problem that many people in NS today are on short-term leases.  That means tenants are offered only a six or nine month stint in their apartment –long term or year-to-year leases are becoming rare.  How can people with children live with so much uncertainty? 

And we are not even looking at the homeless issue, which has mainly been swept under the carpet.  Local government now actually encourages “tenting” at a fixed number of city parks and spaces around HRM (Halifax Regional Muncipality).  Tent encampments usually feature one portable toilet (outhouse), no access to running water, and no electricity.  Other remedies suggested include couch-surfing with relatives and friends; some short term hotel stays at government’s expense, and living in crowded shelters with shower curtains that divide one person’s cot from another.  Oh  wait– a bonus is that HRM will store the homeless person’s stuff for free.  

Trickle Down Theory Nonsense

This is a theory which has been debunked by Jill Grant, Professor Emerita of Planning at Dalhousie University as well as many other planners.  Trickle down theory dictates that once better and newer housing is available usually at a premium rent, rents in older buildings will fall and become more affordable.  That has simply not happened.  According to Jill Grant, Professor Emerita of Planning at Dalhousie University,

“Unless thousands of less expensive units come on the market simultaneously, new housing is more likely to increase local housing costs than to bring costs down.” 

Grant cites a 2022 CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) report that

“suggested that building more market housing — at any price point — would ‘restore affordability’ as older units ‘filter down’ to other households. Filtering theory has been dismissed by housing scholars since the 1970s as evidence showed its ineffectiveness. 

“Instead, studies show that new housing has the potential to drive up regional housing costs. In cities like Vancouver, a ‘teardown’ property — abandoned for years — was listed for $3.5 million in 2022. A new house in Burnaby cost $1.75 million in 2022.”

On Tues. 21 May, the public will have a chance to “have its say” about HRM’s plans for the Accelerator fund. Herald columnist Gail Lethbridge, noted “The public can comment on the fast-track zoning changes that will see high-rises [up to 40 storeys] replacing wood-frame historic homes built along transit corridors and single-family neighbourhoods transformed into multi-residential zones with eight units per lot.”

Sign up for your 5 minutes to speak

Haligonians, if they sign up in advance, can get 5 minutes to speak to HRM’s proposal which we all know is a  “done deal.”  As Lethbridge writes,

“You get the picture. This thing is a done deal. The hearings are a gesture to public consultation. Council has already decided that it will take the millions from the feds. The sad part is that all this upzoning and development is not going to address the affordable housing problem.” 

Interestingly, other cities have also received funds from the federal Accelerator fund and have used the money in more community-friendly ways.  For instance,  in Winnipeg – which received $122 million from the Accelerator fund – the city decided on zoning of only four units per property on major transit lines, and insisted that only mid-rise buildings can be built near shopping malls.  (AllNovaScotia.com 16 May, 2024).  London, Ont. received $74 million and will sanction only four-unit zoning, plus the city pledges to utilize city-owned lands to build non-profit housing.  (AllNovaSocia.com 16 May)  

“I worry that they’re going to ruin the city… They don’t really understand city planning.”

Ross Cantwell, Halifax developer

Halifax critics like developer Ross Cantwell, and Dalhousie planning school professor Frank Palermo are not happy with the uniform eight units per lot and the inevitable proliferation of 40 storey towers— to replace  private homes, and residential neighbourhoods which were built on a human scale.  Cantwell noted, “I worry that they’re going to ruin the city… They don’t really understand design and they don’t understand city planning.”  (AllNovaScotia.com, 16 May, 2024).  Palermo believes blanket rezoning  will not push developers to offer affordable housing.  He also warns that increased need for tenant parking will shrink the availability of green space for all.  (AllNovaScotia.com 16 May) 

And none of this addresses the increase in cars, traffic and pollution that are inevitable if the city insists on eight units per lot, and allows residential buildings 10 storeys higher than Fenwick Tower. 

I know, those people living on the peninsula are supposed to take public transit – but if people pay $3,000 a month in rent, they will likely also afford a car if only to shop at Costco or leave town for a day trip.   There is no way those who pay top dollar for an apartment or a condo are going to suddenly give up their cars for the greater good.  

4 x 30 storey towers on one city block at Spring Garden Rd & Robie Streets — don’t think green

To give you some idea how things will play out, the four towers (more than 30 storeys each) already approved for one city block at Spring Garden Rd and Robie St. do not include the amenity of more green space.  Developers insist that tenants can go to the Public Gardens for green space.  But that’s old green space. How about some new green space? Those four towers will offer parking spaces for about 800 cars.   

The city has been selling off public buildings and property at fire sale rates. As I wrote here,  HRM sold St Pat’s-Alexandra School (3.85 acres) to JONO Development; St Patrick’s High School (four giant towers planned for its 3.2 acres); and Bloomfield School (3 acres) both to Banc Investments.  

Below: St Pat’s-Alexandra school building still standing empty (credit: Robert Devet, 2014); skeleton of Bloomfield school (credit: Halifax Bylaw staff, May 2023); empty field where St Pat’s high school once stood (credit: Google)

HRM sold off the land and destroyed the residents’ hopes of  building their communities.  As I’ve explained before here, it is difficult to harness the energy of community members and yet it is so easy to kill that spirit. And once it is killed, it is dead for years. The activists turn to other projects, or simply get on with their lives, dropping community activism altogether.

At two sites, overgrown unsightly lots and skeletal buildings for a decade by now, there are no serious plans under way to build affordable housing.  At the St Pat’s high school site there are plans for “four dynamic flowing towers” each about 30 storeys high. There are no plans for co-op housing.  Frankly there are no plans for anything of community value on these sites.  Yet our city fathers and mothers patiently wait.  Expecting good things to fall from the skies, expecting community support to grow from developers’ whims.

Most of the HRM Councillors have already made up their minds to vote ‘yes’

Yet the Tuesday HRM Council meeting boasts the community will have a chance to share their opinions.  Even if 100 people register to speak, we will see the same bored expressions on councillors’ faces because they have to suffer through a day-long harangue by unhappy electors—who never really had much say in any plans.  

The councillors have already made up their minds on how they are going to vote.  I was once at HRM council meeting to disagree with some massive development proposal; in my five minutes, I  said I knew council was going to vote for the developer’s proposal no matter what.   Councillor Tony Mancini asked me how I could be so sure? I said, in business school, we teach that the best predictor of future activity is past performance.  Sure enough, HRM council voted for the developer.

I predict the Accelerator plan will be accepted at council on Tuesday. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Photograph at the top: People and Old sign, for Halifax, from this site of old black and white photos.