Caption: Members of ACORN NB held a protest in Saint John, N.B., during a housing summit organized by the provincial government and the New Brunswick Real Estate Association, on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Photo: ACORN NB.
The NB Media Co-op has been at the forefront of covering the housing crisis, activism from tenant and community groups, and policy and program changes introduced by the province in response to the crisis.
New Brunswick was once considered a relatively affordable place to be a tenant, but dramatic rent increases and low vacancy rates have swept the province since 2020, resulting in evictions, housing unaffordability, and a deep sense of uncertainty for low- and moderate-renter households.
At the same time, New Brunswick has seen a dramatic increase in both the number of people on the public housing waitlist and people living with homelessness, revealing the inadequacy of existing public policy and infrastructure to meet the province’s housing needs.
With the support of the Local Journalism Initiative, the NB Media Co-op has shone a light on many aspects of this dire social phenomenon. Examples include a recent report about a vigil for homeless and precariously housed people and those struggling with addiction who have died in Moncton.
This piece documented the high number of deaths in 2024 and the toll these tragedies take on the community, highlighting service-provider recommendations to address housing needs and the toxic drug supply. The report was produced by LJI reporter David Gordon Koch working with community volunteer Robert MacKay of the NB Common Front for Social Justice, an anti-poverty group.
In related news stories, the Co-op’s LJI journalist has covered the precarious situation of people living in a Moncton rooming house and the issue of housing discrimination.
This ongoing coverage has been recognized by activists and academics researching the housing crisis in New Brunswick.
"David Koch is one of the province's most important reporters about the housing crisis,” said Matthew Hayes, founding member of the NB Coalition for Tenants' Rights.
“He has covered what is going on in smaller centres, what is happening to lower-income tenants, and has done so in a format that has allowed time to get into the details of public policy,"
This reporting has also tracked public policy changes implemented by the recently elected provincial government. Koch has documented the long-awaited rent control regime that came into effect in February, a policy that capped rent increases at three per cent.
Rent control has been a key demand of tenant groups and housing advocates in New Brunswick who have fought tirelessly to bring some measure of stability to the more than 80,000 renter households living in the province. However, tenant advocates say there are serious problems with the new rent control policy, notably that it puts no limits on rent increases when a unit passes to a new tenant, potentially spurring “renovictions.”
Tenant groups continue to pressure the government to make changes to legislation. With the support of the Local Journalism Initiative, the NB Media Co-op continues to report on these important social issues.
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
