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The affordable housing crisis is a policy disaster, says researcher

September 15, 2024

The new UNB Student Organizing Collective hosted a panel on the affordability housing crisis at the University of New Brunswick on Sept. 11, 2024. Photo: Sophie M. Lavoie

Housing precarity has long been part of the fabric of New Brunswick due to state neglect and now financialization of housing is making matters worse, says a housing researcher and advocate.

Tobin LeBlanc Haley, a professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, co-founded the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants’ Rights in 2020. While blame for the housing crisis is being placed on increased housing demand, LeBlanc Haley noted that financialized landlords such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have been allowed to buy housing stock and make money through renovictions and flipping.

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Association (CMHC) defines affordable housing as costing no more than 30 per cent of pre-tax income on shelter. “People are spending way more than that right now,” said LeBlanc Haley.

According to LeBlanc Haley, there are 10,733 households on the waitlist for public housing in New Brunswick. For LeBlanc Haley, no effective rent control means that housing has run wild. “Financialized landlords” survive and thrive because of profit.