Like a lot of people in Halifax, I’m extremely frustrated with the response from the municipal and provincial to the current housing crisis. This has definitely been fomenting over the past few years but has really come to a head this week.

The work that @MutualAidHFX has been doing to help the people most impacted by this crisis is commendable, but, even by their own admission, this is a temporary fix and needs to be met with serious commitments from government to fix the underlying issues.

It sucks to watch councillors act in bad faith, to constantly deflect, to dismiss criticism, and above all else to pass the buck on housing. The way that certain councillors, and even certain progressive MLAs have closed ranks around this is maddening.

Is “housing” in the strict sense the purview of the provincial government? Sure. But what about the underlying problems? What about the material conditions that have allowed this crisis to accelerate over the past few years?

I know dozens of people who over the last year have either been evicted or are currently on the precipice of eviction, including me. Rents were already rising before the pandemic, and our relative safety has driven demand as people flock to live and work in Halifax.

With no laws or policies in place to stop landlords and developers from doing basically whatever they want, this spike in demand has allowed them to raise rents as they see fit.

Current compromises, like forcing developers to make a certain number of units affordable are not cutting it. “Affordable” in this case refers to a certain percentage under market value, what does that mean when the market is wildly inflated?

We have talked a lot this past year about the ways the pandemic has allowed billionaires to consolidate wealth, but this is also happening on a smaller scale. How can we describe mass evictions and skyrocketing rents as anything other than an upwards transfer of wealth?

The Jordan Hipsons and the Adam Barretts of the world are robbing working people of their safety and quality of life all the same.

Of course this problem isn't unique to Halifax, gentrification is an inevitable process of capitalism, markets and commodities need to be turned over and reimagined in order to squeeze the most value out of them. As long as housing is a commodity, people will be left in the cold.

I am not expecting to see the city move to some form of completely decommodified housing overnight (although that should be the goal!), but it’s discouraging to see elected representatives argue about procedure and policy when people are hurting.

There's some janky grammar in here but whatever it's like 1am and I am on the government spray.