'We're scraping the bottom of the barrel': Tenants search for reasonable rental units in Halifax
Abby Tucker has been on a hunt for a new apartment for months but keeps coming up empty.
She and her boyfriend want to move into their own place together, but getting the right rental within their budget is proving tricky.
Rents are higher than she’s ever seen and the demand is “crazy,” she says.
“When you find a really good deal, there's 15 people in line ahead of you, and if you can't go see the apartment today, good luck,” said Tucker.
During her search, she says she's come across landlords asking for things they shouldn't be under law.
“Lot of application fees, so definitely a struggle with that, also two and a half months rent seems to be something that they're asking for a lot lately,” says Tucker.
In a city where the vacancy rate is around one per cent, Mark Culligan of the Dalhousie Legal Aid service says these rental conditions can open the door to bad landlords.
“When the market is tight, tenants lose all their consumer power,” says Culligan.
As someone who helps with tenancy disputes, he says it’s important for people looking for rentals to know their rights.
“We're seeing a lot of leases out there where landlords are effectively trying to say they're not responsible for things that they're legally responsible for, like pest control, or they're being discriminatory,” he says.
Tucker's lease doesn't end until September, so she still has time. She says she considers herself fortunate for that, and also for the fact that she has a decent budget.
But she, and others, are concerned about anyone who may not be in the same situation.
Leigh MacLean is a housing support worker with Welcome Housing in Halifax, which helps people find an affordable place to live.
“What we’re seeing now is dual, full-time income families, seniors,” says MacLean.
She’s commonly worked with people who are chronically homeless. But lately, her list of people in need has grown, while she says their options have not.
“We see units that we would have never encouraged folks to take five years ago, with landlords we would never encourage folks to rent from,” she says, “we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.”
For her, the solution lies in more affordable housing.
“We need serious investment in non-profit housing,” she says, “and if we’re going to make agreements with private property owners…we have to come up with ways that it benefits everybody.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Looking over our shoulders': A killing looms large in a little B.C. town
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished. It used to be the sort of place where parents let their kids roam free or play in the local creek, but everything has changed.
Officer who arrested Scottie Scheffler is being disciplined for not having bodycam activated
The Kentucky police officer who arrested top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler outside the PGA Championship is receiving “corrective action” for failing to have his body-worn camera activated.
Toronto man falls off his chair after seeing $70M Lotto Max win in his bank account
A Toronto man who won $70 million in a recent Lotto Max draw literally fell off his chair when he saw the funds in his bank account.
Montreal-area high school students protest 'sexist' dress code
Students at Curé-Antoine-Labelle High School near Montreal are protesting after they say their school's administration started pushing what they call a 'sexist' dress code.
'I won't stop,' Celine Dion says in trailer for upcoming doc about her health woes
Celine Dion's fans are getting a first glimpse of the superstar's struggle with a rare neurological disorder in an emotional trailer for an upcoming documentary about her career and life.
Air travel is expensive. WestJet wants the government to do more to change that
WestJet is asking the federal government to put measures in place to lower ticket costs for travellers, but questions remain on who would foot the bill.
Hundreds have applied for this 'adventurer' job in Banff National Park
Coined as Banff's 'ultimate summer job,' the Moraine Lake Bus Company says hundreds of people from across the world have applied for its adventurer position.
Canadian Hurricane Centre says active storm season predicted for East Coast
The Canadian Hurricane Centre is predicting an active storm season off the country's East Coast this year, mainly due to record warm water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.
U.S. senators write to Trudeau asking him to meet 2% GDP defence spending commitment
A bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging his country to live up to its commitment to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence amid concerns that key members of the NATO alliance are not pulling their weight.