The provincial government announced key performance indicators (KPIs) on Jan. 30 for major issues that residents are facing, including housing and affordability.
Housing and Affordability Minister David Hickey emphasized his confidence in achieving these goals, which the province aims to achieve by 2028.
“I’m incredibly optimistic about what’s to come,” said Hickey. “It’s a matter of keeping the pace, staying focused on those KPIs and that end goal so we can actually get more, build faster and get people off the street.”
The Housing and Affordability Department outlines three major goals: increasing housing starts, increasing affordable housing starts and lowering the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in the province.
Residents have already seen the announcement to begin developments for more affordable housing in Bathurst, which is backed by provincial funding.
There was also a unanimous vote in support of a tiny-home project in Saint John that will create around 80 homes for people identified as homeless.
“We as politicians cannot walk around this province and say, ‘We have a housing crisis,’ we should be acting like the Saint John River is flooded and homes are floating down it,” said Hickey.
“We’re a government that’s responding to a crisis like it’s actually a crisis.”
Nichola Taylor is the chair of the N.B. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an office of the independent national organization which fights for the rights of low-income people.
She supports the provincial government’s focus on solving the housing and homelessness crisis, but is curious if they will continue to put “their money where their mouth is.”
“They can’t wave a magic wand and solve it all overnight,” said Taylor. “It’s really important that they stick to what they say and prioritize it, make sure they follow through.”
Taylor said that the goal of increasing affordable housing starts is the most welcome of these KPIs.
The government has set out to create 1,760 affordable housing units from 2025 to 2028.
“I think that’s where the other government lacked, they weren’t really caring about affordability … that commitment is a positive step,” said Taylor.
Hickey said that the next step is to leave an impact in the market so that the province can build a “solid base” of safe and reliable affordable housing.
The roughly 6,000 housing units owned by the province are in “really bad shape,” as the province’s urban infrastructure is rated “poor” and rural infrastructure is considered “critical,” according to Hickey.
“We need to change that,” he said. “Let’s transform the way the government looks at housing stock and use some of the capital that’s sitting there to fix it.”
Another major issue is the homelessness problem in New Brunswick which the government hopes to tackle through providing “wraparound services” to affected residents by supporting a community case management approach after they get into long-term housing.
This commitment is to try to achieve the province’s KPI of lowering the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness to 621 by 2028, compared to 1,050 people in 2024.
Hickey said that development efforts to reach this goal will begin in the spring.
“We cannot, every year in October, remember that we have winter. In October, communities scramble to get something done and they come up with subpar solutions to the homelessness crisis,” he said.
“We need to do a better job.”
