Housing is a right.
Not a commodity.

Why should you join the campaign?

The increased use of fixed-term leases during a housing crisis has had a harmful impact on the 100s of thousand Nova Scotians who rent. This type of lease has become a “loophole” for landlords to exploit tenants by circumventing the current interim rent control cap. Many are concerned about the lack of tenant protection associated with these types of tenancies. It is important to remember that housing is not a commodity but a basic human right that should never be exploited or denied due to financial constraints or any other factor.

So many Nova Scotians are housing insecure: they have very little protection to support them to stay housed in the face of evictions and rising rents, or even to move to a more suitable location. Housing insecurity leads to increased stress, morbidity, mortality, social exclusion, illness, and disease. Ensuring that everyone has a housing secure future is critical for their health and our collective community’s well-being.

Thousands in Nova Scotia Have No Place To Call Their Own

In Nova Scotia, thousands are without any place to call their own, living on the streets, couch surfing or staying in shelters. Others are in accommodations that they cannot afford, or which are not safe, adequate nor properly maintained. For others, there is a lack of housing that is accessible and accommodates their needs to live barrier-free. As housing becomes even more unaffordable in areas located close to employment, services and amenities, people are being pushed out of their communities.

This could be you, or someone you know.

Housing is Health.

We can’t “fix” health, without “fixing” housing.

If the Premier wishes to achieve his mandate of “fixing” health care in Nova Scotia, then housing must be a central part of his strategy. Stress from housing insecurity has a significant impact on our physical, mental and social health leading to premature death, chronic illness, and social exclusion. Ensuring that everyone has a housing secure future is critical for their health and our collective community’s well-being.

By not addressing the use of fixed term leases the Premier is undermining the impact of the rent cap. His government has doubled down on the same housing strategy that created this crisis. His approach relies on handing over public money to private developers and debunked trickle down economics to increase supply. The recent budget does not include investments that would address the systemic barriers that create housing and income insecurity.

Join our campaign.

We are demanding

It is high time that we prioritize people more than profit in Nova Scotia. All residents should be granted the right to adequate housing, and we must demand that the government strengthens the Residential Tenancy Act accordingly.

NSACCW is calling 6 crucial changes to the Residential Tenancy Act.

  1. Fixed term leases should be automatically converted to month-to-month agreements upon their expiry unless the tenant gives three month’s notice to quit prior to the expiration of the leases.

  2. Penalizing landlords for illegal evictions and require hearings to take place for all evictions including for nonpayment of rent.

  3. Remove the additional obligations section from the standard form lease.

  4. Ensure appropriate regulations are in place for pet fees, appliance fees, and the like which are not currently covered.

  5. To broaden access, landlords must not be permitted to ask about sources of income, landlord history for newcomers, references, debt information, social insurance number, conviction and/or arrest history, eviction history, and credit score.

  6. Protect the right of tenants to form tenants’ unions, to meet and publicize their activities, which should not be interfered with by owners or management representatives, or they face administrative fines.

It is our responsibility as citizens to hold our government accountable for ensuring that every person in Nova Scotia has a safe and secure place to call home. Let us demand justice for all tenants and eradicate the unjust treatment of housing as a mere commodity in our society.

I am joining the call to limit the use of fixed term leases.

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the voices of support for this declaration.

Engage your MLA

We Have Power: a Guide to Engaging with Your MLA and Using Your Voice for Change was made possible through collaboration between the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers and the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia (LISNS).

Use the ‘We Have Power: A Guide to Engaging with your MLA and Using Your Voice for Change’ to advocate to your MLA and tell them why we need an end to fixed term lease. The resource can be used to learn more about options that every Nova Scotian has to influence provincial policies.

Click here to access a full list of Nova Scotia’s MLAs, which includes their biographies, information about which community they serve, and their contact information. You can also use this link to look up your MLA based on your home address.

Engage with them, use our demands to get the conversation started, or send them the declaration of support directly. The more people they hear from, the harder it is to ignore.

Share it wide.

Amplify.

Right click on the image to download, tag us on Facebook and Twitter when you share!

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Voices of Support

  • "I support this! This happened to me that I was forced out of my home."

    Michael Murphy

  • "We need a serious strategy to deal with exploitative landlords and the housing crisis in Halifax!!!"

    Solomon Nagler

  • “I have experienced two rennovictions and am currently living with a fixed term lease.”

    Cecelia Driscoll

  • "I agree that residential fixed term leases need to be banned."

    Robert Nash

  • “Publicly support accessible and affordable housing for everyone. Our governments are responsible for the health and wellbeing of its residents. We need secure housing for everyone in order to have health for all.”

    Janice Graham

  • “I’m on a fixed term lease myself and have had to dip into my retirement funds to support the cost of living. I’m paying $750 more a month in rent in 2 years!”

    Cheryl Coolen

  • "The interim leases need to be stopped and are turn to 'normal leases need to be enforced.' Unfortunately this does not address the unfair rent increases that landlords have been enforcing on people."

    Rene Murray

  • "I am joining the call to limit the use of fixed-term leases and to encourage an immediate fix to end homelessness before winter by building or opening more affordable housing units."

    Danny Cavanagh

  • "Time for action and not more lip service. Government (s) have no real consensus on how many of us are homeless. It's getting scarier than ever."

    Donna Brinson

  • "Signing the declaration of support - Housing is a right, not a commodity."

    Alison Creech

  • "Signing the declaration of support."

    William Musgrave

  • "Housing is health!"

    Eric Olsen

  • "Stop fixed term leases ; housing is a human right ."

    Brian Crawford

  • "Signing declaration of support."

    Cathy Rector

  • "Fortifying tenants rights is essential to tackle the lack of housing options and to ensure everyone has a right to housing."

    Christine Saulnier

  • “End fixed term leases now.”

    Mark Culligan

  • "Tenants need legislated protection."

    Julia Windebank

  • "We are letting our community erode by refusing to address housing - this needs action."

    Sheena Jamieson

  • "Exploitative! Housing is a social determinant of health, not a commodity!"

    Joanne Sulman

  • "Signing the Declaration of Support for revising the Residential Tenancy Act. I am a tenant and feel unprotected by current circumstances. Please make the proposed changes."

    Susanne Wise

  • "I support the campaign to end landlords' use of fixed term leases to exploit tenants. I personally know of multiple tenants who have been required to sign fixed term leases, only to be told they are welcome to sign on for an additional term, however the rent would be increased far higher than any rent cap has allowed for. During this housing crisis we must do everything we can to ensure that housing is treated as the human right that it is."

    Trish McCourt

  • “Poverty is a political chooice - the fact that all governments across Canada have done zero expediency to remedy this situation for the last 40 years - shows that all governments have no concerns for the wasted lives living on the street, children, the elderly, young people, traumatized, mentally ill persons. When people who have come here for a better life witness the extravagant wealth of the developrs versus the reality that unless they are both partners are working two jobs each, they will never be able to afford a home, this is not rocket science - it is reality that most politicians were never refugees, never lived on the street, never were terrified of being kicked out of their residences and never were intimidated by bad landlords for stupidity, such as stealing empty toilet paper rolls.”

    Elizabeth Lee

  • "I’m currently fearful of the current rental crisis and where that leaves me and my family. I’m worried about being displaced and fear the possibility of being separated from my young doughter. The stress of it takes its toll and is greatly impacting my day-to-day. I took the security of being Canadian for granted. Is there another country or place to go to find better safety, security and stability of home. Canada is killing my very existence and my hope of creating home for my daughter. This is not a life to live, rather a curse enduring. I have no plan B."

    Meaghan Morrison

  • "Paramount, my landlord, has many hundreds of units in Halifax/Dartmouth. I do not know about the rest of the province, but I assume that all their units (like mine) are fixed term leases.... Right now the differenece between my rent and the recent market rental rate is $2-300 but when it gets to $5-600 will they just throw me out to make room for a tenant who wil pay more? My husband and I are 70, our income is fixed (and mostly not indexed), we worry. Please fix this."

    Margaret Anne McHugh

  • "Support and call for changes. It's time to fill gaps and truly protect the interests and basic human right to adequate housing of renters in Nova Scotia."

    Janesse Leung

  • "I am signing this declaration because I firmly believe that every Nova Scotian has the right to safe housing. It is unconscionable that, due to current conditions, close to 1000 people in our province are unhoused. We must do better."

    Alex Holmberg

  • "The current regulations are beyond ridiculous. Renters deserve protections just as much as landlords, if not more so, as many don't have a choice but to rent/lease, whereas landlords make an active choice to be in the business and could leave it if unhappy with polices. It's time for change and reasonable protections."

    Pamela U

  • "Signing Declaration of Support. Housing is a human right."

    Kassondra Torraville

  • " I support this declaration."

    Mya Gagnon

  • "The Community Society to End Poverty supports the call for the Nova Scotia government to make policy changes that ensure fixed term leases do not make people homeless."

    Stella Lord

  • "Housing is a human right; Housing is healthcare. We cannot fix healthcare without recognizing housing as a human right."

    Ben Lemphers

  • "Signing the declaration of support - I fully support this advocacy effort."

    Chloe Walls

  • "I support the Housing is Health cause in ensuring adequate housing and support for all Nova Scotia residents."

    Ella Headrick

  • "I support the right to housing - A safe, accessible and affordable housing is a human right for all Nova Scotians."

    Temitope Abiagom

  • "Declaration of support for housing as a human right. I can all on the NS Government to stop exploitative fixed term leases as per the NSACCW campaign."

    Madeleine Waddington

  • "Calling for the six crucial changes to the Residential Tenancy Act. STOP LANDLORD LOOPHOLES - HOUSING IS A RIGHT NOT A COMMODITY."

    Carla Conrod

  • "Consider this my declaration of support for the Nova Scotia Action Coalition for Community Well-being's recommended changes to the Tenancy Act. Nova Scotians, as with all Canadians are struggling under the housing crisis. It is within your power to make changes that will protect Nova Scotian's right to safe homes. Those most vulnerable to houselessness are the most impacted by landlord's current abuse of the Tenancy Act. This is deplorable behaviour, if you believe housing is a human right you should act within your means to protect this right."

    Sydney Griffiths

  • " I support this declaration, as it is full of very sensible policies that help to redress the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants. People are suffering, and landlords are disproportionately profiting. These changes would make a difference to many people's lives who have been unjustly removed from their housing. I support this declaration whole-heartedly."

    Joanna Bull

  • "The almost ubiquitous use of fixed term leases has created a crisis for renters. Being able to move people out of rental units for no other reason than to procure higher rents creates a "churn" in the local rental market, unnecessarily adding apartment seekers into the rental market, which also becomes a factor in driving average rents up, by artificially creating higher number of renters than there actually are. Long term renters have absolutely no stability, as they can be evicted at any time. This practice must stop."

    Brenda MacLellan

  • "As someone who recently moved to Halifax from a different province, it was so hard finding an apartment because landlords hold all the power. I was asked for my SIN, banking information, annual income, and credit score all just in the application forms. This can be so predatory, as scammers posing as landlords or the landlords themselves can steal and sell that information - hurting vulnerable people. When I finally did find an apartment and a roommate, the landlord decided to change our lease to a fix term lease, and this left us with little room for negotiation or avenue for recourse. We signed despite not wanting a fix lease. With the population of Nova Scotia growing rapidly, the need for reform is necessary to protect current and future tenants."

    Brandy Rivers

  • "It is high time that we prioritize people more than profit in Nova Scotia. All residents should be granted the right to adequate housing, and we must demand that the government strengthens the Residential Tenancy Act accordingly...I am joining the call to limit the use of fixed term leases."

    Madelaine McGarr

  • "Hello, there has been some significant progress made on housing however this area continues to be a loophole which places renters in extremely vulnerable situations. With such limited housing availability, we need to be working to keep people housed and not add to the rising rates of homelessness."

    Christine Johnson

  • "I’m a single mom and live in fear of this happening a second time to me. The fixed term lease needs to be done away with. I was given only 11/2 months notice last year."

    Valerie Rafuse

  • "Housing is a right!"

    Colleen Dowe

  • "Insecurity of housing is more and more prevalent. Let's stick together and cate for one another."

    Peter Browne

  • "Signing the declaration of support. Please revise or end fixed term leases in Nova Scotia."

    Judy Oleary

  • "The financialization of housing has become a sick, disgusting predatory practice in our communities."

    Gerald Coleman

  • "Fixed term leases may cause tenants to be anxious about asking landlords for necessary repairs/or alterations for things which they are expecting to have provided according to the terms of their leases."

    Carolyn Earle

  • "No pets is discriminatory. This eliminates 50% of people needing housing. No credit check. Housing is a right. If I want to spend 50% of my income on housing, That should be my choice."

    Jane Wentzell