A community block-party takes place at the Gerald B. Gray Memorial Arena building. Surrounding the building is a new mix of affordable and market-rate housing. The arena building has been transformed into an open space for various community-driven programs and has a food market that welcomes everybody. This is now a vibrant neighbourhood for living, working, growing food and playing. The buildings in the background show the surrounding context. A diverse group of people are spending time together on the front steps of the project built on surplus land alongside the arena.
Surplus Properties
We demand surplus properties for housing. Canadian governments own substantial urban land and building resources. These lands and buildings are currently seen as a surplus asset to be sold and privatized, but it is worth so much more in public hands. We demand that all levels of government give first right of refusal for the use of this land to Indigenous, or non-profit, organizations for the creation of affordable housing suited to the diverse needs of urban residents. “This should be housing.” is an independent database built by Halifax coders and journalists working with Halifax Mutual Aid and the Anti Eviction Mapping Project. This project builds on This Should be Housing?s existing database to identify and track high potential parcels.
Municipal, provincial, and federal governments own an immense number of surplus properties that are sitting idle?often in the form of vac...