St. John’s, NL (October 4, 2024) – Joedy Wall, PC Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Housing and MHA for Cape St. Francis, spoke out today about the Furey Liberals continued failure to address the housing crisis.

 

Wall was reacting to the heartbreaking story of Rhonda Whalen, featured on CBC News last evening. Ms. Whalen, who is confined to a wheelchair, lives in a non-accessible housing unit where she cannot access a bathroom, cook safely, or even have her grandchild live with her. Ms. Whalen was raising her grandchild after her daughter was killed in a car accident but can no longer do so due to her inability to access the bedrooms.

 

"While the Minister continues to boast of great progress, Ms. Whalen's desperate situation is the ugly reality of the province's housing crisis," said Wall. "Ms. Whalen has burned herself trying to turn on her stove. This is outrageous and unbelievable. While the Liberals continue to point to solutions on the horizon, Ms. Whalen needs immediate help now. Has the government explored alternate accommodations? Can she be temporarily placed somewhere else, such as the former Airport Inn, which is still mostly empty?"

 

Wall noted that while Minister John Abbott boasted of 3,000 new units to be built over the next two years, their record tells a different story. Last year, the previous Minister boasted that 750 new homes had been built, but the number turned out to be just 11. The waitlist for an NLHC unit was 1,500 in 2021 and has now ballooned to over 3,000.

 

"A doubling of the waitlist. That is the true record of this Liberal government. For all the photo ops and re-announcements, this government failed to bring forward a housing strategy for years and was only shamed into action when Tent City went up on Confederation Hill in 2023. Thirty-two houses in Corner Brook were allowed to lie vacant, fall into disrepair, and were ultimately condemned. What a total failure."

 

 

 

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