'We're just at a standstill': Housing crisis causing backlog in shelters, transitional housing

Erin Austin wants to see more of the people she works with find permanent housing, but it's getting increasingly difficult. 

An outreach manager with Adsum for Women and Children in Halifax, which operates two emergency shelters and supportive housing in Halifax Regional Municipality, Austin said it's now taking six months to a year for her clients to secure permanent housing they can afford.

"That's a constant worry, because if the spaces in the shelters are full, then there is no space for new folks to come in," she said. "We're just at a standstill until those folks get moved on."

Many of the people Adsum works with earn minimum wage or receive income assistance, she said, and that's not enough to keep up "because of the increased cost of living, the increased cost of rent, the fact that there is not enough housing for the amount of people that are looking."

Organizations like Adsum that work with people who are unhoused or precariously housed in Halifax say the high cost and low availability of rentals is increasing demand for their services, and clogging up the temporary solutions devised to deal with a worsening crisis.

According to the latest rental market report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Halifax saw the highest year-over-year spike in residential rent across the country between 2021 and 2022, with the average for a two-bedroom unit jumping 9.3 per cent. 

The vacancy rate in Halifax stayed around one per cent — the second-lowest in the country.

Adsum is one of the operators of The Bridge, the province's newest and largest shelter, which will have 190 rooms in an old hotel space in Dartmouth. Many homeless people had already been staying at the hotel, in rooms rented by the government.

Austin worries about the detrimental effects of staying in a hotel or shelter long-term, but said there are also dangers for people who can't get in.

"There's more and more tents going up. There's more and more people who are ending up homeless because of the increased cost of living," Austin said. 

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia tracks the number of people experiencing homelessness in Halifax, with data from service providers including Metro Turning Point, the Salvation Army, Adsum, the YWCA and the Out of the Cold Shelter.

It says the number of people considered actively homeless in the municipality has risen from 690 in September 2022 to 953 as of June 13.

Of that total, 713 people identify as "chronically homeless," meaning they've been unhoused for at least six months or recurrently during the last six years.

Jenna Tucker, the transition team lead with the John Howard Society, oversees a team of people who help men exiting the criminal justice system. She said the current housing market can force people to choose between an unsafe situation, or living outside.