N.S. government partners with home-sharing website | News
Summary
The Nova Scotia government has struck a two-year funding agreement with a non-profit website intended to help match people looking for a place to live with property owners who have extra rooms in their home.The government is giving $1.3 million over the next two years to the home-sharing web platform Happipad.The money will go toward the cost of two employees based in Nova Scotia and to waiving fees renters would otherwise be charged for background checks and homeowners would be charged for processing transactions. "Its sort of the 21st-century version of the sticky note on the Superstore or the grocery store wall," Housing Minister John Lohr said in an interview on Friday. All agreements are required to follow Nova Scotias Residential Tenancies Act and shouldnt be subject to the kind of sticker shock some people are seeing in the rental market, according to the spokesperson. "Statistics Canada data show there are about 130,000 empty bedrooms in the province and Lohr said that creates opportunities in the midst of the provinces housing crisis.Hartling said the website, which already has a presence in B.C., Alberta and the Toronto area, typically caters to students, refugees and people moving somewhere for work who dont have time to set up a permanent place to live before arriving or who are in a place temporarily for work.The site can also appeal to seniors living alone in a home that has additional space or people simply looking to make extra money by renting out a room. Lohr said the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of people who used to rent rooms in their home to stop the practice, and hes hoping this system might convince them to start again.