Housing advocates warn politicians housing crisis will get worse

Tim Crooks described the current lack of affordable housing as bluntly as he could to members of the Nova Scotia Legislature's standing committee on community services Tuesday.

"It's a [situation] that started to build itself 10-plus years out," said the executive director of Phoenix Youth Programs. "We haven't seen the worst of it and the magnitude of how we need to respond is going to be huge."

"Our present network and ability to do that is stretched to the breaking point," he said. "This problem is guaranteed to get significantly worse before it gets better."

Jim Graham, executive director of the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, also pleaded for more help from the all-party committee.

His request centred on the need to provide adequate medical supports for those who are "chronically homeless," which he defined as someone who has been without a home for six consecutive months or six months cumulatively over a three-year period.

He told the committee there were currently 555 people registered as homeless in the Halifax Regional Municipality and that many of those were people with "high acuity."

"Individuals with health, active addictions and/or mental health issues which compromise their ability to sustain their housing," said Graham. 

He told the committee since November 2020, 210 individuals have been housed by local community groups from this official list, 128 of those people were deemed high acuity. 

"96 of those [who were] housed, returned to homelessness," he said. "They were unsuccessful. 90 per cent of those individuals that returned to homelessness were high acuity individuals."

Graham praised the Department of Community Services for recognizing the need for permanent supportive housing, but called on the Department of Health to join the effort by creating a program offering mental health treatment in the community.

He urged the department, along with Nova Scotia Health, to set up these teams, made up of mental health nurses, social workers, specialized educators, occupational therapists and psychiatrists.

"This kind of an interdisciplinary team goes directly to the people in their living environment," said Graham. "They support those who have a mental disorder and a high need for services.

"Without it, this revolving door experienced by high-acuity individuals will just keep spinning."