The agency that operates public homes owned by the government in Nueva Scotia says that 222 of its 12,000 homes are in fixed -term leases, which increases alarms for a lawyer.
A fixed -term lease contract is a type of rental agreement that ends at an established date and is not automatically renewed, allowing owners to deliver the tenants without showing cause or going through an eviction process.
Some owners say that they allow a low risk proof period for tenants with poor rental history, but the defenders of the tenants have criticized them for eliminating the security of possession.
Nora Macintosh, lawyer for the personnel of New Legal Scotland AID, says it was surprised to know that the New Scotland Provincial Housing Agency is using this type of lease, since “it goes against what public housing represents, which is to provide safe, stable and support housing.”
Macintosh said that tenants are concerned that they are asked to sign this type of lease as a way to border the formal eviction process, putting vulnerable and low -income people with greater risk of losing their home.
CBC News discovered the use of fixed -term leases by the Provincial Housing Agency in a Spring 2025 informative note prepared for Jill Balser, the minister in charge of the Province of Residential Holds Program. CBC obtained the informative note through a request for freedom of information.
A agency spokesman confirmed that this type of lease is used for about three percent of households.
“This practice has been used in moderation within the public housing program since 2003, generally to provide second opportunities for applicants who are not eligible due to delay in rent, behavioral problems or lack of a reference of the owners,” wrote Kelli Macdonald in an email.
Macintosh said that this is “worrying about different reasons”, which includes “exploiting the imbalance of power between owners and tenants by misuse of fixed term.”
CBC requested an interview with Pamela mentioned, director of customer services of the Provincial Housing Agency of Nueva Scotia, but was not available to comment.
‘Probation’
Macintosh said that fixed term leases should be used when an owner and tenant agree to each other, not as a “trial period.”
She said that with the waiting list of this type of housing now with 8,200 people, many are desperate for an affordable place to live and will sign any lease that is offered.
“By using fixed term leases as a trial period, especially for marginalized people who probably depend on public housing as a last resort, create housing insecurity because it does not provide them with security security,” he said.
“And so, once the lease ends, the public housing agency can simply terminate the lease and not renew without any supervision or responsibility.”
Macintosh said that to evict a tenant in a periodic lease that is automatically renewed, any owner, including the housing agency, would have to go through the eviction process of the residential holdings program and demonstrate that there are problems with the tenant.
The housing agency denies that leases are used in this way, saying that it is a way of providing “a second chance to be safely relocated.”
“Our hope is to transition from any home by a fixed term lease to a periodic lease once its term is in place.
Most fixed term leases in Cape Breton
According to the numbers published to CBC News through another request for freedom of information, most public housing tenants in fixed -term leases are in Cape Breton.
Among the 222 households in total, 175 are in Cape Breton, 39 are in the Metropolitan Region and eight are in the western region. Its lease length varies between five months and 57 months.
Richardson said that this “gap in politics” is due to the fact that the five separate housing authorities that existed before the provincial housing agency of Nueva Scotia was created, used fixed -term leases case by case.
Richardson said the agency now has an updated policy that “guarantees a constant application of fixed -term leases throughout the province.”
She said the policy dictates the reasons why a fixed term lease can be used and regulates that it can only be used for 12 months.
