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HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's major landlords' association says a two per cent annual cap on rents brought in by the Liberal government won't solve the shortage of affordable housing and may even make it worse.
Kevin Russell, executive director of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia, said in an interview today the temporary protections for renters introduced on Wednesday are acceptable as a short-term measure during the pandemic.
But he says if the measure stays in place after COVID-19 subsides, landlords will struggle to maintain and upgrade their buildings, and it will lead to a decrease in the housing available for low-income tenants.
Housing Minister Chuck Porter has said the cap will be in place until the province lifts its state of emergency order or Feb. 1, 2022, whichever comes first.
He also has announced that landlords will not be able to obtain an eviction order for renovations, informally known as a "renoviction,'' for the same time period, because he says people shouldn't be forced out of their homes during the pandemic.
Russell speaks for 155 building owners in the province who manage multi-unit apartments.
He said his members need the ability to raise rent by more than two per cent in cases where tenants leave and new ones are coming into their apartments.
Left over time, a two per cent annual increase, "doesn't allow proper reinvestment into the property to bring the units up to new standards," he said. He said that is particularly true for the older apartment buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s that house lower income tenants.
The deeper issue is a need for the government to make a major investment in non-profit housing and use the private sector to build the units, he said.
Community groups want to see the measure prolonged beyond the immediate crisis. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now issued a release on Wednesday saying temporary rent control will be meaningless if landlords can continue to raise rents and drive tenants from their homes once the pandemic is over.
Diana Devlin, executive director of Welcome Housing and Support Services, said in an interview that she believes the rent caps should continue until there is an increase in the supply of affordable housing.
Her team has been trying to help tenants evicted from apartments in the north end of Dartmouth who have been paying rents of about $600 a month for one-bedroom units.
"There just aren't any kind of units here for my kind of folks. There's no deeply affordable housing," she said.
"The solution to our problem is more money to non-profits so we can build and develop."
Devlin said she'll be watching to see what solutions the newly created Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission recommends.
"I'd imagine at some point in the future the rent cap could be re-evaluated, once the right supply of housing is put in place," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2020.