HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s wait-list for public housing surpassed 8,000 people in June — a jump of about 1,200 people over an eight-month period, according to figures released Thursday by the Opposition NDP.
The updated numbers are contained in documents released to the NDP through a freedom of information request by the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency.
The figures show a total of 8,267 people were waiting for public housing across the province as of June 27.
In an interview, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the increase shows that many people have run out of options because they can’t afford to deal with rising rent.
“I think housing has just become out of reach for a huge swath of Nova Scotians,” said Chender. “So now we have a situation where more and more people are turning to things like the public housing wait list.”
Demand is greatest in Halifax where 3,545 people have signed up for public housing in the province’s largest city, with 2,174 waiting for a one-bedroom unit alone. The province’s western region is next with 1,780 followed by the northern region with 1,677 and Cape Breton where a total of 1,265 people are on the list.
The province has more than 11,000 public housing units and officials have said the average wait time to get a unit as of last fall was about 1.7 years.
In February, the province announced that it would double the number of new public housing units in its capital plan for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Growth and Development Minister Colton LeBlanc said the plan included 242 new public housing units at a total cost of $136.4 million over several years. That was in addition to the 222 housing units and 51 modular homes that were announced over the previous 18 months.
Chender said more needs to be done immediately to protect renters. She also said the province needs to close lease loopholes and impose rent control to make apartments more affordable.
Nova Scotia has a five per cent cap on rent increases that has been extended until the end of 2027, although Chender said the cap is weak because it doesn’t prevent landlords who use fixed-term leases from jacking rents for new tenants once a previous lease expires.
“We need a system of rent control that works for tenants and for landlords to make sure that rents are stabilized and to make sure that people can stay in a unit more than a year at a time and that (rent) increases are predictable and affordable,” she said.
Last October, a legislature committee was told that 7,020 people were on the public housing wait-list with about half that number being seniors. The documents recently released to the NDP placed the number of senior applicants on the list aged 58 or above at 47 per cent.
“Our seniors increasingly can’t afford to live out their retirement in dignity and that’s a real problem,” said Chender.
LeBlanc, the minister responsible for the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency, said Thursday that not everyone on the wait-list needs immediate housing and that some are already supported through programs like rent supplement but joined the list as a first step.
He added that applicants facing urgent situations such as homelessness or domestic violence are prioritized and moved to the top of the list.
"As the minister responsible for housing, I acknowledge that there is still work to be done to understand the needs of those on the wait-list," LeBlanc said in a statement.
"However, my focus is on getting more people into safe and affordable homes, faster."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2025.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
