Nova Scotia housing plan exceeding targets so far, says minister

Nova Scotia is three years into its five-year housing plan.

Three years into the province’s Action for Housing plan, the Nova Scotia government offered an update, saying it’s exceeding its key targets.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Growth and Development says the province has “created the conditions for almost 80,000 additional homes” for Nova Scotians since the plan launched in 2023.

“These numbers represent opportunities for real people now and into the future,” said Housing Minister John White.

The five-year housing plan was first launched in April 2023 and will see $1.7 billion in spending by the time the program reaches its completion.

According to White, the plan has helped seniors stay in their homes longer, assist healthcare workers find housing in their community, and assist first-time homebuyers achieve homeownership.

“We set ambitious targets because Nova Scotians needed us to move with urgency,” said White in a press release. “Three years in, we are exceeding two of those targets and closing in on the third, but we are not done.”

The government listed achievements from April 2023 to June 2026, which include:

• work underway for 79,100 new units, while the target was 41,200
• improved affordability for 25,000 households, the goal was 17,250
• more than 1,400 first-time homebuyers purchased homes through the Down Payment Assistance Program.

So far, the province has seen nearly 10,000 units either finished and built or in some phase of early construction according to White.

“We can’t say that it’s going to be fixed next year, I can’t say that,” said White. “I can say in year three of the five-year-plan, I like where it’s going.”

White and officials with the Department of Growth and Development know there are still many struggling to find a place they can afford.

But for all the tower cranes in the sky and highrise rental towers, the government acknowledges there’s a shortage of middle housing.

“We will pivot and we will focus on ground-based development,” said Vicki Elliot, the associate deputy minister with the Department of Growth and Development, and interim CEO of Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency. “We’ll focus more on greenfield development to ensure that people have access to that ground-based development that’s needed.”

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia credited the province for its work, saying it is bringing the right mix of programs.

“The programs that exist are working,” said AHANS president Michael Kabalen. “Everyday projects are being funded, being worked on and the menu of programs works well.”

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