As voters make clear that affordability – and especially housing affordability – is one of their biggest concerns this election campaign, Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Leader Jim Dinn announced that his party will make housing affordability a key focus of an NL NDP government, announced today his NL Homes Plan – a bold strategy that would see 1000 public, affordable housing units built across the province each and every year.
“Over the past four years, the waitlist for public NL Housing units has risen to approximately 2500. That is 2500 too many,” said Dinn. “These aren’t budget lines, they’re real people – families with children, seniors struggling to make ends meet, young people who just can’t catch a break – all in desperate need as this Liberal government has done nothing. It’s a shame that successive governments are willing to accept this as status quo.”
Under the Liberal government, the waitlist for affordable housing units has skyrocketed by over a thousand individuals and families to 2,500. Back in 2023, while claiming for months they’d built 750 units, it was later revealed that the actual number was eleven. The issue is a personal one for Dinn, having spent much of his time as an MHA dealing with constituents in desperate need of affordable options, with none to be found. Dinn was even ejected from the Legislative Assembly for calling out the Housing Minister for his lies.
“This is the number one issue that our candidates are hearing across the board. We’ve got to lower costs for families and the rising cost of housing is at the top of that list,” said Dinn. “When we ensure that public housing is available across this province so that everyone has a safe and stable place to call home, we help build more safe and stable communities. It’s as simple as that.”
Dinn’s NL Homes Plan will take bold action to tackle the ever growing waitlist for NL Housing (NLHC) units with a plan to build 1000 homes across the province that are affordable, accessible, and built according to universal design principles. This includes creating a new Crown Corporation called NL Homes, which would be responsible for raising the funds so the NLHC could take on and oversee construction. Dinn strategy would allow more affordable homes to be built and help get people off of the long waitlist and into a home.
“To address this issue head on, we have to think of bold actions that will put the province on track to ensure people are housed,” said Dinn. “By creating NL Homes, we would have a focused housing Crown Corporation – that specializes in financing and construction – who will prioritize getting these builds done.”
The strategy would involve investing $150 million yearly to build up NL Housing’s supply by 1000 new units yearly – funds that would be recovered through rental revenue collected over a longer amortization period of 40 years, ensuring low costs and affordability for people.
“This is an essential plan to ensure that folks have truly affordable housing. We cannot leave it up to the private market, which is focused on profit, to create affordable options.”
“This initiative, along with the full suite of policies we have created around housing, show the NL NDP is prepared to bring a better deal to the people of this province when it comes to addressing the housing crisis.”
Affordability remains one of the NL NDP’s top priorities this campaign as Dinn’s NL Homes follows a suite of affordability announcements such as removing HST of home heating and children’s essentials, making $10/day childcare more accessible, and rent control to keep costs affordable.