New report says N.L.'s community housing stock is far below national average

As the cost of living continues to increase while incomes stay the same, housing advocates in Newfoundland and Labrador are calling for more affordable housing units.

A report published this month by the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (CFNL) and Annex Consulting says only 0.3 per cent of the province's total occupied housing stock represents non-profit units. 

"Nationwide, community housing accounts for approximately four per cent of the overall housing stock, meaning this province is far below average," said the report, titled Breaking the Bottleneck.

According to executive director Nicole Dawe, CFNL stewards funding for communities in need and commissions reports like this one to shed light on where that money should go. 

Now, the charity is pointing people's pocketbooks to community housing. 

The report says housing provided by non-profit organizations and co-operatives could be the solution to what it calls a provincewide crisis. 

"It's gotten considerably worse over the last couple of years," said Dawe.

She added that "infinitely accelerating" housing costs and the pressures of the free market are not factors in community housing, making it a worthwhile investment. The only added cost is maintenance. 

Annex Consulting president and housing advocate Hope Jamieson says community housing needs more help from funding bodies because the non-profit organizations are already stretched thin.

"When you think about how the cost of operating anything has increased, you can see how those dollars are certainly not going as far as they used to," they said in an interview.

"People are struggling to just maintain the services that they already provide, the housing that they already have. And then when you add the enormous administrative burden of pursuing a housing project, it's a very, very challenging hill to climb," said Jamieson.

It's very difficult to access public funding for new projects because of the various different streams and the endless applications, according to Jamieson. 

They added that there's also no funding available to acquire land or existing buildings. 

"That on its own is a real challenge, especially for organizations that are new, starting out with no equity. So it comes down to, you know, land, time, capacity, finances," said Jamieson. "I really don't think people know how hard it is."

The recommendations laid out in the report aim to jump over those hurdles.

Some of the points include offering financial support to early-stage projects, and to bring funders together to streamline applications and funding requirements. 

Dawe says progress starts at the beginning, at that fabled bottleneck. 

"We need to figure out how we meet [organizations] where they are with the support and also the funding to make it happen," said Dawe.

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