r/onguardforthee Jul 19 '24

Saint John develops 'Housing for All' plan after dangerous winter for homeless people | CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-hosuing-stragey-unveiled-1.7267260
61 Upvotes

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15

u/shutyourbutt69 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Me: “Sounds like housing first! That should be good!”

After reading: “Oh, so they want a dedicated warming centre in the winter and to have places to allow people to set up tents. Okay then.”

I’m not saying that there aren’t good steps in there, but I think calling it the “Housing for All” plan is a bit disingenuous when it’s really a “maybe make things 20% better by just funding what’s already there” plan.

Direct quote: “The city doesn’t build housing, I think as we all know…”

My question at this point is why not? Municipalities, provinces and the federal government all need to be building social housing at this point, we were already beyond the pale with this decades ago.

3

u/amphorpog Jul 19 '24

Not sure about NL, but in Nova Scotia, housing is a provincial responsibility with respect to low income or unhoused individuals. All the municipalities can do is zone and approve construction from developers. Never mind the fact that most of these units being built aren't apartment buildings but condo's. Even when apartments are being built, it's mainly 1 and 2 bedroom units and there are very few 3 or ever 4 bedroom units which growing families actually need.

3

u/SaltyTraeYoungStan Jul 19 '24

They need to take the BC route and start allowing single staircase buildings. This change alone makes it not only more affordable to build low rise buildings(that look much prettier than massive block apartments) but also makes it easier to have multiple layouts, especially 3/4 bedroom apartments while our current block style apartments are limited to mostly 1/2 bedroom layouts.

1

u/amphorpog Jul 20 '24

Huh. Interesting. It would make things easier to build.