Housing Financial News

Nova Scotia Health (NSH) Community Transitions director Wendy McVeigh.According to NSH, there is currently one client support worker (CSW) on the health floor working alongside continuing care assistants (CCA).Five CSW’s are required to fill the 24/7 schedule for the floor to operate fully — meaning 21 out of the 28 rooms on the floor are currently unoccupied.“Empty rooms going and people are freezing, I don’t understand this,” said Richard Young.He’s been living in a tent at Grand Parade in front of City Hall and lives rough on the daily.The thought of empty rooms that could otherwise provide shelter doesn’t make sense to Young.“It was minus four the other night, some people didn’t have sleeping bags,” Young recalled “We don’t have heaters, we have summer tents, so it’s just like putting a thin sheet over you — you’re freezing.”While space may exist on the health floor, Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services (DCS) says The Bridge is typically at 95-100 per cent capacity.There are 152 rooms available for clients, not including the health floor, but the numbers of clients served may be higher as some people share rooms with partners or siblings.Even though NSH are working on the staffing shortage to get CSW’s on its floor, medical staff at The Bridge have been kept busy — serving the entire building rather than just the designated floor.“The early stage of this was, ‘we needed a health floor,’ but as we’re evolving it’s not a health floor because the health services go wherever the person is,” said McVeigh.She says it’s about wraparound coordination of services for clients: health, housing and social supports.“We have health services throughout the building now, we have the health clinic operational seven days a

Cooper has over 14 years of experience in the affordable homeownership space.

The federal government’s removal of GST for rentals in Canada is a welcome step to create more housing affordability but its impact on rents likely won’t be felt any time soon, experts told Global News.

London Ont., will be the first recipient of money from the federal government’s $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

By Name List, there are 1,012 people experiencing homelessness in HRM, an almost 60 per cent increase since August of last year and an approximately 500 per cent increase since 2018.While those numbers don’t include people who may be sheltering in rural HRM, sleeping in their car or staying at a friend or family member’s house.“We’re forgotten, you know, everybody forgets about us,” said Tanner.

living wage calculations reflect costs in June 2023, and take into account government transfers added to the family’s income, like child benefits, as well as deductions subtracted, like taxes and EI premiums.“The wage should be enough for the family to avoid severe financial stress, support the healthy development of their children, and participate in their social, civic, and cultural communities,” the report said.The report, released Thursday, said the living wage is $7.85 to $11.59 higher than what the minimum wage will be next month.“Working people deserve to work to live, not just live to work,” the report said.

Two premiers have sent letters to Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem urging the central bank to halt interest rate hikes ahead of its next rate decision Wednesday.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet went into a huddle at this year’s cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, it was clear that housing was top of mind. When Trudeau emerged from the retreat last week, he told reporters some of the measures Canada most needs.

housing crisis “absolutely cannot” be solved without the aid of new immigrants who bring their skills here, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told reporters on Friday.“The federal government is making housing more affordable and bringing in the skilled workers required to build more homes,” Miller said in Montreal.“Without those skilled workers coming from outside Canada, we absolutely cannot build the homes and meet the demand that exists currently today.”Miller was asked by reporters if he was considering slashing Canada’s immigration targets, which are currently at historic highs, in response to a recent Bank of Canada report that new immigrants are adding to housing demand.The minister said he was not.“People coming to this country are resourceful. When they bring capital, they are able to acquire houses,” he said.“If people are asking us to slash, what does that mean? Does that mean slashing the skilled workers that we need to actually build those houses? Slash family reunification, which can be devastating for the mental health and well-being of the families that are already here?”Canada aims to welcome 451,000 new immigrants in 2024.By 2025, the number is expected to go up to 500,000 new immigrants in one year.Miller said around 60 per cent of new immigrants to Canada are economic migrants, many of whom are the kind of skilled workers needed to build more housing.

immigration targets each year and the government is getting ready to welcome more people who work in skilled trades. But Canada continues to lose tens of thousands of jobs in the construction sector, according to recent data.According to Statistics Canada’s jobs data released on Friday, the Canadian construction industry saw a loss of 45,000 jobs in July.

January is the time when we start to think about new beginnings and for some, that means moving to a different country.