Tents outside Confederation Building show government not taking housing seriously, says NDP

Two Newfoundland and Labrador politicians say seeing people living in tents outside Confederation Building is a sign of the government's failure to act on the need for housing.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn told CBC News he's been calling for a long-term plan that addresses housing for over a year. He said people who have moved onto Prince Phillip Drive wouldn't be there if the province had taken the issue seriously.

"This is not something that's happened overnight. This has been building," Dinn said Wednesday.

"I find it disheartening, frustrating, angering in many ways, that it's taking this now to get some comment. And maybe the premier and the minister [responsible for housing] can start taking this seriously."

Around a dozen homeless protesters have pitched tents across the street from Confederation Building in St. John's — and they say they won't leave until they find safe and affordable housing.

CBC News tried to ask Premier Andrew Furey about the encampment Wednesday but was unable to connect with him at two events.

Dinn called on the government to explore greater investments in non-market, community-based housing where rent is more affordable; explore rent control to keep rent from going to unaffordable heights; and explore renovating government-owned buildings and turning them into homes.

For example, he said the government could use buildings like schools and churches that aren't currently occupied.

He said a plan needs to come quickly, before the start of the winter.

"We're grasping at straws here right now. There's got to be a longer-term plan," he said.

"I'm going to keep saying that until the premier and the minister finally realize that, yes … there are solutions out there."

Craig Pardy, the PC MHA for Bonavista and the party's poverty reduction critic, said he hopes housing is among the first items on the agenda when the House of Assembly reopens on Oct. 16, adding there needs to be a "cost of living intervention."

"Maybe we'll be presented with some legislation that's going to have some meaningful effect on the people that are looking for homes, and those people in the province who are currently living in their homes, but find that they can't financially sustain. And there are a lot of those as well," Pardy said.

Pardy said a key first step would be fixing up the homes that are available, pointing to more than 150 housing units owned by the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation that are vacant and in need of repair.

He also wants to see the government put more money in people's pockets through an increase to the minimum wage, and an update of Newfoundland and Labrador's poverty reduction strategy.

"I know it takes time, but we probably ought to have began years ago," he said. "The immediacy would be to find shelter for these people on an interim basis, to make sure that they're in the warm and out of the elements."

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